I started reading poetry consistently in 2018 when I came across "The Journey" by Mary Oliver. That poem changed my approach to poetry and my whole life.
Meanwhile, I started to illustrate professionally, and while reading poetry, in my mind a sequence of images was forming, as if they were a little movie of the poem.
I suppose I was developing a narrative visual process without really knowing it, as my job was mostly private commissions and decorative paintings.
I have read very few graphic novels and comics in my life (for some incomprehensible reason, they are not a genre we study in school—why?) and I have no culture or knowledge about them.
During the first lockdown, I took a course with one of my favourite illustrators, Maria Luque, about drawing a short story. The story for the final project had to start with the following sentence: "The first time that I...".
For the first time, the focus wasn’t on "how good to draw" but on how to render the story into images, how to add to the words with drawings. This moved my focus from how to why. It was another big moment in my journey.
It made me think in a kind of cinematic way (the fact that I grew up watching tonnes of films helped a lot). I started to think in sequences, and the drawings then came naturally. I started to shift the attention from the drawing itself to the message I wanted to transmit. I know it sounds pretty stupid: that’s the purpose of art after all, and I was discovering it only then? Well, I explain why this happened in Jesus had a penis (suitable for all ages, don’t worry!).
My final project in Maria Luque’s course has been a short story titled "Wild Garlic". I live in an area where wild garlic grows galore. The first year I was living here, I had no idea what wild garlic was, and I actually thought I was smelling bad for eating too much garlic (I love it). I was horrified because the smell was pretty strong and I was on a rural road in the open air. Then I understood. So let me show you my final project: Wild Garlic, a very short story by Marty Molinari.
Wild garlic has pretty flowers, and you can make an amazing pesto with it. Leave the cheese and replace it with more wild garlic and more pine nuts, and use high-quality olive oil.
Since I drew Wild Garlic, I drew and wrote a few more short stories like this but then reality checked in again and I had to keep up with markets, commissions, business courses…
Until last week. But this is for part 2!
A little preview…
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I love the linkage between a small story in your life -and the visual story that expands on it so lovingly ! It makes sense to me that you would discover a cinematic way of thinking when composing your art in this way. I have sometimes over thought a drawing and this has held me back from true exploration of the story -from all angles. My favourite class in Art school was a comic book illustration class -which encouraged me to use my own style to tell a story . I hope this bring this joy of drawing from my head back into my practise ! Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing "Wild Garlic" heather