Sara Fanelli, Absurd Anthropomorphism

Absurd Anthropomorphism

Fanelli: “Everything is fed by personal research both in materials and ideas. The ideas most of the time come from marrying events and emotions in my life with texts I come across in my reading. This is the core of all the work and it feeds the general illustration commissions as well as the books….Almost all of the images are inspired by a text. They are visual interpretations of the ideas contained in the text I chose. But I have complete freedom in the way I want to express those ideas and in the degree of obscurity of the narrative”

Interview with Stephen Heller. 

Edward lear

Born May 12th 1812, British born painter and poet Edward Lear is best known for his wit, art and poetry. He quickly gained recognition in 1832 and was hired by London Zoological society to execute illustrations of birds. 

Moving forward into poetry his first book of poems was 'A Book of Nonsense' in 1846. Remembered for humorous poems such as 'The Owl and the Pussycat' which has become one of his most famous nonsense poems. 

His techniques have influenced Fanelli as she says 'Almost all of the images are inspired by a text. They are visual interpretations of the ideas contained in the text I chose.' Being a poet and a painter meant that Lear could illustrate his poems and anthropomorphise his quirky characters.

Figure 1 - Owl and the Pussycat

The Owl and the Pussycat - Edward Lear

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are, you are, you are,
What a beautiful Pussy you are."
Pussy said to the Owl "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing.
O let us be married, too long we have tarried;
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows,
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?"
Said the Piggy, "I will"
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon.
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand.
They danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

At the time, bringing animals to life would be absurd for the time making Edward Lear's paintings and drawings more impactful and shocking. Anthropomorphism has progressed substantially since them but the basics behind it is definitely apparent in Fanelli's work. 

Figure 2 - Fanelli, S. (2011) Sara Fanelli - a life in pictures 'Dear Diary' 2002

Through this methodology, by anthropomorphising unexpected things, like cutlery as Fanelli has done here in her 'Dear Diary' book in 2000, at a sophisticated level of detail and behaviour can always add the element of surprise within a book. Instead of just making cutlery talk to one another, the piece of text adds a story and an idea that the illustrations are created from. Fanelli is successful with this because she delights children by surprising them and being crazy and unintentionally funny. 

Figure 3 - Own methodologies applied. 

I took from the knives and forks the idea behind that and used food as the main story. It is a short little love story about how the dessert has fallen out of love with the lemon and now loves 'something sweeter' which is the pineapple that has now been baked on  top instead of the lemon. It involved more collage making and therefore was as interesting as the other collages to make. The piece of text wasn't thought of before the image but I now understand from exploring this technique how a piece of text can strongly inspire an image. 

Image Reference.

Figure 1 - Owl and The Pussycat - ziggyshortcrust (2012) Ziggy Shortcrust

Figure 2 - Fanelli, S. (2011) Sara Fanelli - a life in pictures. Dear Diary 2002

Bibliography

- Fanelli, S. (2011) Sara Fanelli - a life in pictures. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2011/mar/31/childrens-books-7-and-under (Accessed: 20 November 2016).

- Heller, S. (2007) GRAPHIC GESTURES AN INTERVIEW WITH SARA FANELLI. Available at: http://www.hellerbooks.com/pdfs/varoom_03.pdf (Accessed: 20 November 2016).

- Lear, E. (2014) Edward Lear. Available at: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/edward-lear (Accessed: 20 November 2016).

- Ltd, S. (2015) The owl and the pussycat poem by Edward Lear. Available at: http://www.rhymes.org.uk/the_owl_and_the_pussycat.htm (Accessed: 20 November 2016).

- ziggyshortcrust (2012) Ziggy Shortcrust. Available at: https://ziggyshortcrust.wordpress.com/category/drawing/page/12/ (Accessed: 20 November 2016).