Meet Illustrator Luciana Powell

Hi members!
Take a break from your email drudgery and meet Luciana Powell, whose illustration was chosen for our October Kick-off Event Banner:

Q: In preparation for autumn, what’s your favorite hot drink?
Luciana Powell: In the mornings, in every season, my homemade latte with full fat milk or heavy cream. Sometimes I even manage some fancy latte art! Last Fall I got into turmeric chai, sometimes mint tea at night.

Q: Who are the top 3 artists inspiring you these days and why?
Luciana Powell: Inspiration sources are always in flux, within the last few months I’ve been looking at the art of Britta Teckentrup, Andrea Serio and Beatrice Alemagna, they are all very different from each other and very different from what I make, but deeply stirring and inspiring.

Q: What are the inspirations behind the winning artwork that you sent in for our October banner?
Luciana Powell: I made that piece in the beginning of the pandemic, experimenting with a new (to me) analog technique. Even if we were all inside, books can be the way out to wondrous worlds – with or without the lockdown, of course, but even more poignantly during those days in early spring when it was still cold out and we knew so little about this pathogen, and it felt so scary to be outside.

Q: Bonus question: What is one good thing you’ve gained or learned in these nutty Coronavirus times?
Luciana Powell: What a great question. Nutty is right, and sad, and filled with loss, but filled with learning too. Among many other things I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for health and for breathing, for being in the moment and present with my family, and for how healing art can be. I was already shifting back to analog methods in my art making but since the pandemic started I find myself experimenting and using real paints again as a starting point to my illustrations, even if I always end up bringing everything together digitally at the end.

More about Luciana

Luciana Powell: I am originally from Brazil and moved to the US in 2002. Drawing was a favorite pastime in my childhood. My father would bring stacks of printed sheets from work and I would draw on the back side – my parents say there wasn’t a stack of paper high enough for my drawing appetite!

I graduated with a degree in Product Design and worked as a product and graphic designer for a few years, but I was always drawing, taking classes and freelance illustration projects on the side. I took the plunge and became a full-time illustrator in 2001, right before moving to the United States – because why take only ONE leap of faith if you can take TWO? Watercolor and acrylic paints were the media I used at the beginning of my career, but I eventually settled with the digital brush – I love the freedom that comes with digital art, and all the possibilities of experimentation with different textures. Nowadays my style can be described as mixed media: I still use analog methods, but they are now mixed with photographs and scanned objects, all together in a melting digital pot. I believe that the colors, vibrancy and warmth of my home country still inform my work today. A sunny optimism, humor and warm human interactions permeate my depiction of characters, animals and landscape. Representation in children’s books is finally at the forefront when we talk about children’s literature today. As an immigrant myself, making sure that kids see themselves in the art I produce is of utmost importance. In the current Covid19 crisis I see art in general and children books in particular as more vital than ever, and, like most illustrators, working from home is what I have been doing forever. The world is only now catching on to us.

I have lived in Illinois, California, and now I call the beautiful Pacific Northwest home in Washington state, where I live with my husband and 2 sons, just south of the border with Canada, after living just north of the border with Mexico for 11 years. I have also learned recently that I can claim Luxembourguese citizenship, which makes me a tri-citizen of Brazil, USA and the European Union.