poetic imagery

When I was away in Auckland I came across a very special book. It's called ''Beautiful Solitude" and eventhough I cannot make heads or tails of the Chinese phrases, I can of the miraculous illustrations done by Jimmy Liao.

There is something very touching about his work. I absolutely love the book.

I guess the simplicity and black and white just grabbed me! Below are some more pictures of illustrations of other books:

 Jimmy Liao is a professional illustrator. From wiki: "Jimmy Liao (Chinese Name: Lao Fu-Bin, born November 15, 1958) is a well-known Taiwanese illustrator as well as a picture book writer. The name Jimmy is his English first name which brought about his (phonetic) Chinese pen name.


After graduating from Chinese Culture University in which he majored in art, Jimmy worked in an advertising company for twelve years, and then he worked as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines. In 1998 his picture books Secrets In The Forest and A Fish With A Smile were published in Taiwan.

 

Jimmy’s books have been translated into dozens of languages and sold around the world. His books have also been adapted for theater, movie, television, and animation.

His pictures are characterized by their use of striking, bold colours and depict central figures that often appear small in the foreground, suggesting the viewpoint of a child in the wide, sometimes sinister, world, or to hint at loneliness."

I like how he manages to include both large spaces in his work and make the characters so personable in it. His work seems cute but has a lot more to it which makes it very compelling I think.

Now I hope he doesn't mind, but I have started scribbling poetry work of my own in this book choosing his images carefully to accompany it, or is it mine that accompanies his? It somehow seemed the right thing to do.