Vernissage

Watercolor fairytale

The exhibition of illustrations from the book "The Secret of the Lost Jadeite" by Maria Bali was presented in the Cultural Centre "Mir" for the last few days. The book tells the story of two sisters looking for their mother. In the hall, this story is retold with the help of paintings painted in the traditional watercolor technique. We met with the author and talked about the features of this artistic creativity - illustration.

- Maria, your paintings are presented in our exhibition hall again. Please tell us, why illustration? What is special for you in this type of art?

- First of all, thank you for allowing me to show my illustrations. I really appreciate it. Although I called these paintings illustrations, they are not illustrations in the strict sense of the word. First, I painted the pictures and later, added text to them. My book is like a walk through a gallery, where a person goes from picture to picture and tries to understand the idea, the mood that the author wanted to convey. And when you put them together, you live a story.

- What is created first - the cover, the illustrations? Or does everything go hand in hand?

- In my case, the cover is one of the pictures in the book when a significant moment occurs. The reader will only find out which one at the exhibition or in the book. The cover should interest him so much that he wants to solve this mystery. In children's literature, the cover is what makes us pick up the book and give it a chance. That's why I tried to make it so that you don't take your eyes off it, just as it doesn't take your eyes off you.

- How did you look for a character for such a touching story retold through pictures?

- It didn't take long to find one. I needed two children and my two girls coped with the roles of models with excellent marks. They willingly posed for me when I needed to draw a certain composition. And our cat Merlin served as the model for the cat in the fairy tale. I needed a character that was mysterious, free, wild and at the same time made children want to cuddle up to it. The choice of a cat was obvious. It is a real creature, but it can do magical things.

- There are other discoveries in your paintings - the symbolism of flowers and objects. How did you work on this?

- I studied symbolism already at university. My thesis paper was dedicated to symbolism in landscape architecture. I walked through many historical gardens and each of them told its own story. Each component in the garden had a meaning and the compositions revealed their ideas. It is human nature to look for meaning in everything and it is a huge satisfaction when you find it. This is the essence of working with symbols. To offer something more than just beauty at first sight.

- Maria, tell me, are there any rules, rituals that you adhere to in your paintings?

- Every day, I sit at the table and work on my projects. I still have something in development. Often I hear a voice: "Give it up today! You will not succeed anyway! What is the point of this?! It is useless!" Nevertheless, I go to the table, mentally tape the mouth of this voice and continue to work. It's a form of discipline that works for me. And then I feel happy because I've overcome laziness and succeeded in something. And even if my drawing doesn't turn out well (that happens often), I tell myself that I've made some progress. What I did wrong, I won't screw up next time. I've learned my lesson.

- Your paintings show a rare ability to notice things that most adults do not see. How do you manage to subtly feel and convey important things in your illustrations?

- Inspiration is very important to me. I find it either at exhibitions, walking through Moscow parks, or wandering in nature. I like to travel to places that define infinity, seem monumental and remind us how small we, people are. For some reason, they fascinate me. I like to look for places that have a strong Genius Loci. If I feel the energy of such a place, I feel inspired and feel the need to draw it. I try to convey this energy to the image. Unfortunately, I do not have a filter installed that would not let negative energy through. I just run away from such a place. I look for only positive places.

- It is important for a children's book illustrator to sensitively feel the nature of children, know their needs, interests, take into account their perception of the world. How do you guess and make the right accents in your illustrations so that a child becomes interested?

- It is necessary to observe. I will explain using playgrounds as an example. When you build a playground for children, where it is clearly and literally defined - this is a rocket, this is a pirate ship, the children stay there to play for 20 minutes and then leave or start inventing new games that have nothing to do with the playground. But if you build a playground where you give them the freedom to play with components that can be used in different ways, the children will always come up with something. And each time they can come up with something new. Leave room for children's imagination. Let them define the game. And the same is with a book. I do not tell the readers everything word for word. I leave them room for play. Then they can return to the book and read it in their own way. I do not put specific words in their mouths, but offer them pictures to observe. And each time they can discover something new, change something, understand it differently.

- An interesting idea to make an exhibition literally from the pages of a book. It turns out that children, following the footprints marked on the floor, will literally read it and create a visual image of the story?

- Yes. It's as if they turned into a little book elf and entered the book. I tried to create a magical space so that visitors could better empathize with the story. Therefore, even some pages come out into the space as art objects. Until 16 June, everyone can come to the Cultural Center "Mir", walk through the fairytale space and see my paintings there!

Interviewed by Eleonora YAMALEEVA, Member of the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation,
photo by Yan BUSHA