Marion Kadi is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book Harriet's Reflections.
Q: What inspired you to create Harriet’s Reflections?
A: I was working on another story at the time and I felt stuck. There was a lion--a sculpted fountain and its reflection--in this other story. Somehow this character of the lion inspired me and became its own story.
Q: The Kirkus Reviews review of the book called it a “highly original tale of trying on—and ultimately integrating—multiple identities.” What do you think of that description?
A: I’m very happy and proud when people take the time to read my book, to think about it, and to write about it.
When I’m writing, I don’t start from the interpretation or the theme. I stay inside the logic of the story, the narrative, and the characters. I don’t articulate the story to myself in terms of the message it might convey. But I’m happy that people have found the book meaningful.
Q: Did you work on the text first or the illustrations first--or did you work on them simultaneously?
A: Simultaneously, the whole way through. Sometimes the story would push the illustration, sometimes an illustration idea would motivate the narrative.
Q: How did you develop your artistic style?
A: I think about style a lot, both when I’m working and when I’m reading. I spend a lot of time going to museums, looking at art books, and falling into rabbit holes on the internet--a new project I’m working on right now came out of one of these rabbit holes.
In order to make Harriet, I felt like I had to develop a new illustration style, different both from my commercial work and from my paintings. That was hard.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m preparing a little solo show in Paris--that’s the rabbit hole.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: You can commission paintings from me! A portrait, or an illustration for a child. I’ve also been working on a very special ABC book with a friend. Look out for it!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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