Something Strange

The political cartoonist Roberto Perini has been one of the protagonists of Italian satire.
He was one of the founders of the satirical magazine Il Male, and has collaborated with  many 
other important periodicals, newspapers and book publishers. Perini is also a skilled watercolorist,
and has created a number of illustrated books with the publisher Nuages.
His artworks are filled with surrealistic imagery and with his love for the people, 
buildings and landscapes of Cuba, where he has lived for the past 20 years. 

 These are some of the spreads featured in the volume Animali, 

written and illustrated by Perini and published by Nuages in 2001.

Sunday Safari - Winter Moon

Alex Alendreyev, thanks to The Graphic Side of Life

Jun Takabatake, illustration from Quien soy, thanks to Col.leccionàrium

Micah Lidberg, Pronghorn

Charles Mikolaycak, illustration from Great Wolf and the Good Woodsman, 1967

thanks to The Art of Children's Picture Books

Claude Lapointe, illustration from L'Appel de la forêt, 1979

 

Jonathan Woodward

Peter Spier, The fox went out on a chilly night, 1961, thanks to Curio Books

 Mary Sumner, Moonlit Sheep, thanks to the art room plant

Alain Bailhache, illustration from The beautiful world of hoopoe

Kiki Maconi, 1957, thanks to Vaula

Julia Gukova, illustration from The Legendary Unicorn

V. Pertsov, illustration from The little pig in the prikly fur coat, 

thanks to Book Graphics

Feodor Rojankovsky, Scaf the seal, 1936, thanks to 50 Watts

Try a Little Tenderness

 I have recently fallen in love with Kyoko Okubo's small sculptures, 

delicately handcrafted from traditional japanese washi paper.

Okubo is a self taught artist who began playing with washi as a child, 

and in her mid-30s began making dolls for herself. After sharing 

her works with family and friends, she first exhibited them on a 

sidewalk Tokyo’s Harajuku district. Since these humble beginnings, 

she has gone on to show internationally and is currently represented 

by Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge Massachusets.

Okubo's miniature scenes realistically portray intimate moments from her poetic 

dream world, a soft universe inhabited by gentle and enigmatic wild animals

mysteriously bonding and interacting with lovely girls and young children. 

"Washi, meaning “Japanese paper”, is a crisp, sturdy material created from fibers 

from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub or the paper mulberry. 

While today the material is often mass-produced, it is still handmade 

in rural communities throughout the country."

From an article about Okubo at American Craft Magazine.

You can also read a nice post on her work at Art Found Out.

Stay tuned for more January in Japan findings!