26 June: Italo Calvino and Karina Puente

Zenobia City by Karina Puente

A friend said one of my drawings had 'an Italo Calvino vibe', and never having heard of Calvino, I Googled. The pitfalls of casual googling were evident when I assumed the drawings I saw on my search results were by Calvino. Then I noticed there were a few different styles of drawing, clearly not all by the same person. I looked into it and discovered Calvino is in fact an author. His book Invisible Cities has inspired several artists to make work based on each city's story; the ones shown here are by Peruvian architect Karina Puente (first to come up on a Google search on Italo Calvino) - my favourites by a mile.

Zaira City by Karina Puente

Whether my friend, as I did, thought the drawings were by Italo Calvino, or whether she was referring to the spirit of the book in relation to my work, I don't know. She may even have been referring to some of the book jacket designs on Calvino's books. I haven't read Invisible Cities but took a 'look inside' on Amazon and I love what it is, not quite a novel as such, but a collection of descriptions of experiences in imaginary cities. Each city has a personality which is explored, I assume it's no coincidence that many have been given human names. The poetry of Calvino's writing displays a clarity of vision, obviously the reason so many artists have been inspired by it. The book is on my list for Santa this year.

Please check out the beautiful work of Karina Puente on her website - prints are available to buy on her shop. Besides being an architect and illustrator, she is a self-taught ceramicist and there is also a selection of her works in clay which look like objects discovered in an archeological dig on Contemporary Vestiges. Also on my list for Santa.