Rosana Faría

Rosana Faría was born in Caracas in 1963, studied graphic design at the Instituto de Diseño de la Fundación Neumann and painting and drawing at the Escuela de Artes Visuales Cristóbal Rojas. She later worked as a graphic designer, but then began to concentrate on her work as an illustrator, cartoonist, art director, and teacher of creative workshops and, since 2001, at the Asociación Pro Diseño, Escuela de Comunicación Visual. Furthermore, she is an art advisor at Editorial Cadena Capriles, an educational publisher.

The impressions and experiences which she gathered in her many travels in her home country find expression in her illustrations and in her aim to share with her compatriots, by graphic means, her awareness of democracy. She was encouraged to illustrate children’s books by a friend: »This allows me to escape from surrounding reality, from the unbearable traffic, from the amazing journey that it takes to buy the ingredients for making lunch, from never-ending presidential speeches. This escape helps me to understand the world from another perspective«. Her illustrations attract attention through their extraordinary inventiveness and playful use of perspective. Central themes are integration and otherness as at once normal and special. She dealt with this theme back in the 1990s in her illustrations for »Niña Bonita« (1996; Eng. »Niña Bonita«, 1996). A snow-white hare, fascinated by the black skin of its human playmate, tries everything to get a black coat itself. The story ends with a plea for the potential which lies in being different within every society. In »El libro negro de los colores« (2007; Eng. »The Black Book of Colours«, 2008), which she illustrated, this theme is again tackled. The imaginings of the blind boy Thomas about the world around him and the people in it that are narrated in the text are reflected in the illustrations, which depict the interplay between perception and emotional states. Text passages are repeated in Braille, making this a picture book both for the blind and the sighted. It can be read with eyes and fingertips alike and as such expresses the illustrator’s commitment to people working together towards integration. Rosana Faria is currently working on a children’s book on eco-tourism.

Her picture book »El libro negro de los colores« was awarded the BolognaRagazzi Award in the category »New Horizons« in 2007. She lives and workes in Caracas

© international literaturefestival berlin

La alegría de pintar
[Text: Rafael Arráiz Lucca]
Anaya
Madrid, 1990

Pin Uno, Pin Dos
[Text: Arturo Navarro]
Ekaré
Caracas, 1993

Niña Bonita
[Text: Ana Maria Machado]
Ekaré
Caracas, 1996

La gran pelea
[Text: Menena Cottin]
Tecolote
Mexiko-Stadt, 2007

Das schwarze Buch
der Farben
[Text: Menena Cottin]
Fischer
Frankfurt/Main, 2008
[Ü: Helga Preugschat]