XL REPUBBLICA - how Mika keeps himself busy ;-)

[Marilyn Mastin]

Ok, very quick translation!

 

This month's theme is art.

 

He starts by saying how he went to meet an illustrator in Connecticut, the famous illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak. He's now 82, and on meeting Mika he said he was very young. He says they talked for 3 hours. He's got a lot of admiration for him, saying that he changed the way childrens' books were illustrated.

 

He says that if he hadn't become a singer he would've been an illustrator. He says that illustrations are like pop songs, they capture people's attention instantly, and that they both create things that are indescribable using simple ingredients. He says Sendak was physically like the characters he drew, and had a quick sense of humour. People don't realise how much of an influence the illustrators from the 40s (many of them Jews) like Sendak had. Many of them emigrated to the States to escape the war and found a growing editorial industry, with new developments in printing techology creating books that needed to be filled with illustrations. He also says that it's thanks to Walt Disney that many revolutionary illustrations were created.

 

He then goes on to talk about how he was expelled from school when he was 11. He didn't know how to read or write, but his mum decided to make him start from scratch and kept him away from school for a year, when he learned to sing and play the piano, and studied the characters in childrens' books. A couple of years later he used his savings to buy his first painting, a watercolour by Jim Woodring, of a rabbit called Frank that lived in a surreal immaginary world. And that was only the beginning, if he earned a bit of money he would spend it on a painting. At 17 he exchanged and sold his designs online, and he wasn't the only one.

 

And the illustration on the page, it's by Yasmine, who thought it'd be a nice idea if one of us designed something for the next article. So if you want your design to appear in next month's XL, send an email to feedback@xelle.it (Subject: Illustrazione Mika) by May 13th and they will then choose the best one!

Thanks for the translation! I can't draw, but I'm excited for those talented fans who have a chance to have their illustrations in the mag!

[skiwi]

Thank you!!!

[Shine]

Thanks again Nezza

I love Mika's comparation between pop music and art of illustration. It's pretty true.

[basicamenteyo]

Thanx for posting and translating!!

[violet_sky]

Ooooh! What a great topic. I've been waiting for something like that forever.

Thanks for posting and translating!

I'm looking forward to reading the original.

[Dreamy_Queen]

Thank you for translating, Nezza!

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, that and his bum...

 

Dunno what you are talking about

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Anney]

thanks a lot for the translation Nezza.... I loved to read it:teehee:

(does anybody know wheather that article will be out in English again??)

 

that "fan-drawing"-idea is so cool and nice! I wish I wizld have a got idea maybe it will come^^

[atreyu]

thank you Nezza!!

 

the design ontest is quite exciting wish they gave better instructions

I would like to try and participate but so much freedom lives my head in blank

[Cecilia Barrios]

Thanks for the translation!

is a great idea and provide the opportunity to participate all

[BiaIchihara]

(My friend @AndyFerrari made the translation to Portuguese and posted it on Brazilian Thread, so I thought of translate the Portuguese version to English and post it here, hope it helps :aah: )

 

The illustration is POP and I'm looking for accomplices

 

Directed disoriented by windy roads of Connecticut, in a morning of the last January, until I found a house in lacquered wood in the forest: the home of Maurice Sendak, the famous illustrator of the book ''Where the Wild Things Are''. Entering, I found an elderly man down, sitting in their pajamas at the dinner table. He looked at me and smiled amiably. "You're too young," he said, "I have 82 years, take your seat."

 

During the next three hours I've peered through life of the man who is one of my greatest inspirations. Sendak has illustrated more than one hundred books. Reinvented the art of illustration and children's books. He is an indefatigable worker, draws while listen to Schubert in the same room where he sleeps, eager to finish and leave an important body of works like his heroes, William Blake and Keats.

 

If I hadn't become a musician, I would have become an illustrator. Illustrations are similar to pop songs. Capture your attention in a few seconds. Musicians create the elusive starting from simple ingredients. The illustrations idem, with lines of simple appearance and images easy to understand, but behind that, they may have the same skill of a painting from the Louvre. Sendak is for artwork as the Beatles are for music.

 

Talking to him feels like sitting with one of his characters: small, large and extraordinarily expressive face, ready to joke. Perfect combination between a fierce cynic and a boy in reverential awe of the art of music. His Judaism is almost excessive. Speech fragments of Yiddish, with a touch of theatricality.

Many people do not realize the influence over the imagination of their childhood years that those 40 artists had from Western Europe (especially Jews).

 

Many of them emigrated to America to escape of the war and they found a future in the publishing industry to expand. With the development of modern techniques of color printing books and magazines have proliferated, and illustrations were needed to fill them. The ability of these graphic artists migrants revolutionized the world of illustration. The drawings were still direct and pop, but behind them there was a wealth of technical expertise and sophistication.

 

Then Walt Disney puts his hands on artists like Gustaf Tenggren and Tibor Gergely, and it is to them that is owned the creation of complex visual world of so many animated classics, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The resentment of some of these proven performers wasn't unjustified. For years they were the unsung heroes of pop culture, thrown out in the world of fine arts, underpaid by large companies. How things have changed.

 

At eleven, I was expelled from school. I wasn't able to read or write, my mom takes me to start from scratch, keeping me away from school for one year, I learned to sing and play piano, and studied the images of children's books. The figures were much more important than words, and there comes my obsession with illustrations. Some years later, I used all my savings to buy my first drawing, a watercolor by Jim Woodring, which showed a rabbit named Frank. Frank is drugs, sex, insecurity, happiness and fear, don't talk (there's no text in their stories) and lives in an imaginary land, surreal. Frank was subversive, but my parents had no idea.

 

And I didn't not stop there. If I won anything, I spent in an image. At 17 I've already sold and traded my pictures online. I was not alone. An entire generation who has grown up with the illustrations refuses to consider it something to enjoy and throw away. Those Tenggren and Gregely, who were given a while ago, can now fetch up to $100,000. The poor ones must be turning in their graves!

 

And now let's talk about the illustration on this page! My sister Yasmine, who is an illustrator under the pseudonym DaWack, thought it would be nice if one of you illustrated my next column. So if you want to appear in the next issue, draw your illustration, scan it and send it to feedback@xelle.it (subject: Illustrazione Mika) until May 13, and we'll pick the one we like more.

Edited April 28, 2011 by BiaIchihara

[krjsantos]

Thank you Nezza

 

Love this theme, art is pop

[krjsantos]

(My friend @AndyFerrari made the translation to Portuguese and posted it on Brazilian Thread, so I thought of translate the Portuguese version to English and post it here, hope it helps :aah: )

 

The illustration is POP and I'm looking for accomplices

 

Directed disoriented by windy roads of Connecticut, in a morning of the last January, until I found a house in lacquered wood in the forest: the home of Maurice Sendak, the famous illustrator of the book ''Where the Wild Things Are''. Entering, I found an elderly man down, sitting in their pajamas at the dinner table. He looked at me and smiled amiably. "You're too young," he said, "I have 82 years, take your seat."

 

During the next three hours I've peered through life of the man who is one of my greatest inspirations. Sendak has illustrated more than one hundred books. Reinvented the art of illustration and children's books. He is an indefatigable worker, draws while listen to Schubert in the same room where he sleeps, eager to finish and leave an important body of works like his heroes, William Blake and Keats.

 

If I hadn't become a musician, I would have become an illustrator. Illustrations are similar to pop songs. Capture your attention in a few seconds. Musicians create the elusive starting from simple ingredients. The illustrations idem, with lines of simple appearance and images easy to understand, but behind that, they may have the same skill of a painting from the Louvre. Sendak is for artwork as the Beatles are for music.

 

Talking to him feels like sitting with one of his characters: small, large and extraordinarily expressive face, ready to joke. Perfect combination between a fierce cynic and a boy in reverential awe of the art of music. His Judaism is almost excessive. Speech fragments of Yiddish, with a touch of theatricality.

Many people do not realize the influence over the imagination of their childhood years that those 40 artists had from Western Europe (especially Jews).

 

Many of them emigrated to America to escape of the war and they found a future in the publishing industry to expand. With the development of modern techniques of color printing books and magazines have proliferated, and illustrations were needed to fill them. The ability of these graphic artists migrants revolutionized the world of illustration. The drawings were still direct and pop, but behind them there was a wealth of technical expertise and sophistication.

 

Then Walt Disney puts his hands on artists like Gustaf Tenggren and Tibor Gergely, and it is to them that is owned the creation of complex visual world of so many animated classics, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The resentment of some of these proven performers wasn't unjustified. For years they were the unsung heroes of pop culture, thrown out in the world of fine arts, underpaid by large companies. How things have changed.

 

At eleven, I was expelled from school. I wasn't able to read or write, my mom takes me to start from scratch, keeping me away from school for one year, I learned to sing and play piano, and studied the images of children's books. The figures were much more important than words, and there comes my obsession with illustrations. Some years later, I used all my savings to buy my first drawing, a watercolor by Jim Woodring, which showed a rabbit named Frank. Frank is drugs, sex, insecurity, happiness and fear, don't talk (there's no text in their stories) and lives in an imaginary land, surreal. Frank was subversive, but my parents had no idea.

 

And I didn't not stop there. If I won anything, I spent in an image. At 17 I've already sold and traded my pictures online. I was not alone. An entire generation who has grown up with the illustrations refuses to consider it something to enjoy and throw away. Those Tenggren and Gregely, who were given a while ago, can now fetch up to $100,000. The poor ones must be turning in their graves!

 

And now let's talk about the illustration on this page! My sister Yasmine, who is an illustrator under the pseudonym DaWack, thought it would be nice if one of you illustrated my next column. So if you want to appear in the next issue, draw your illustration, scan it and send it to feedback@xelle.it (subject: Illustrazione Mika) until May 13, and we'll pick the one we like more.

 

Great Bia thanks sweetie

[Kumazzz]

@Bia 　Obrigado !!　:

[BiaIchihara]

@Bia 　Obrigado !!　:

 

@Kumazz: De nada :blush-anim-cl:

[Etoile2roses]

Thanks for the translation

 

I love this article They did not give directive for the illustration so I will try something and send an old one also

[mine]

Thank you very much for the translation!

[Louiza]

Thanks for the scan and translation:flowers2:

I really loved this month's article and the idea of sending your illustration for next month's column

[misscece]

Thanks for the translation

[Rivendel_Mordor]

Yes. I love the idea, too. I'll try to do something. I love the way Mika let us to get involved in his crazy and artistic world

[francoise]

Thanks for posting & translation

[Jaya]

Ok, very quick translation!

 

This month's theme is art.

 

He starts by saying how he went to meet an illustrator in Connecticut, the famous illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak. He's now 82, and on meeting Mika he said he was very young. He says they talked for 3 hours. He's got a lot of admiration for him, saying that he changed the way childrens' books were illustrated.

 

He says that if he hadn't become a singer he would've been an illustrator. He says that illustrations are like pop songs, they capture people's attention instantly, and that they both create things that are indescribable using simple ingredients. He says Sendak was physically like the characters he drew, and had a quick sense of humour. People don't realise how much of an influence the illustrators from the 40s (many of them Jews) like Sendak had. Many of them emigrated to the States to escape the war and found a growing editorial industry, with new developments in printing techology creating books that needed to be filled with illustrations. He also says that it's thanks to Walt Disney that many revolutionary illustrations were created.

 

He then goes on to talk about how he was expelled from school when he was 11. He didn't know how to read or write, but his mum decided to make him start from scratch and kept him away from school for a year, when he learned to sing and play the piano, and studied the characters in childrens' books. A couple of years later he used his savings to buy his first painting, a watercolour by Jim Woodring, of a rabbit called Frank that lived in a surreal immaginary world. And that was only the beginning, if he earned a bit of money he would spend it on a painting. At 17 he exchanged and sold his designs online, and he wasn't the only one.

 

And the illustration on the page, it's by Yasmine, who thought it'd be a nice idea if one of us designed something for the next article. So if you want your design to appear in next month's XL, send an email to feedback@xelle.it (Subject: Illustrazione Mika) by May 13th and they will then choose the best one!

 

Thankyou so much

[LeiRe]

[YOUTUBE]6cOEFnppm_A[/YOUTUBE]

[BiaIchihara]

Big thanks for the scan and the short translation :huglove:

[Laurel]

Big thanks for the scan and the short translation :huglove:

 

I love your cake siggy ... I would be loathe to eat them though ..... they look amazing

[BiaIchihara]

I love your cake siggy ... I would be loathe to eat them though ..... they look amazing

 

Thanks, I'm glad for you like it :aah: