Balbusso Twins, le gemelle dell'illustrazione

Anna ed Elena Balbusso, gemelle, vivono e lavorano a Milano.

Diplomate in pittura all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, dal 1994 operano come illustratrici freelance per la pubblicità e l’editoria sia in Italia che all’estero.

Dal 1998 illustrano libri per ragazzi e copertine con varie case editrici.

Dal 2003 lavorano con testate francesi nell’ambito della comunicazione e dei magazine.

Nel 2006 hanno iniziato nuove collaborazioni nell’editoria per ragazzi in Francia ed in Corea del Sud.

Charles Dickens: "Love is not a feeling to pass away"

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic.

He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius.

His novels and short stories are widely read today.

Charles Dickens | Love is not a feeling to pass away

Love is not a feeling to pass away,

Like the balmy breath of a summer day;

It is not - it cannot be - laid aside;

It is not a thing to forget or hide.

William Powell Frith | The Two Central Figures in "Derby Day" | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Happy birthday to Édouard Vuillard, born on this day, in 1868

Happy birthday to French Post-impressionist and Nabis painter Edouard Vuillard, born on this day in November 11, 1868.

From 1891 through 1900, Vuillard was a prominent member of the avant garde artistic group Les Nabis, creating paintings that assembled areas of pure color.

His interior scenes, influenced by Japanese prints, explored the spatial effects of flattened planes of color, pattern, and form.

The Prado Mona Lisa, 1507-1516

This version of the Mona Lisa (Louvre) was painted by one of Leonardo’s pupils.

The fact that each pentimento, or change, in Leonardo’s original (to the bust, outline of the veil and position of the fingers) is repeated here suggests that the two works were created simultaneously.

There are also differences with respect to the original, in the unfinished landscape and on the face.

Overall, the panel seems to reflect an intermediate stage in the creation of the Louvre painting.

Prado Mona Lisa, 1503-1516 | Museo Nacional del Prado

Chiaki Okada | Children's book illustrator

Chiaki Okada / 岡田 千晶 is an illustrator and author of children’s books from Osaka, Japan.

Her gentle, calming artwork was selected at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2010 and she has since illustrated books by authors from around the world.

Her first picture book published in English, For All the Stars Across the Sky, was released in 2019. She lives in Japan.

Konstantinos Kavafis | Itaca / Ithaca / Ιθάκη, 1911

"Ithaca" /Ιθάκη è una poesia del poeta greco Konstantinos Kavafis, comunemente considerata la sua opera più popolare.

Fu pubblicata per la prima volta sulla rivista Grammata (Γράμματα, "lettere") della Alessandria. Basata sul viaggio di ritorno di Ulisse nell'Odissea di Omero, la poesia è intitolata all'isola omonima di Itaca.

Una prima versione della poesia, intitolata "Una seconda Odissea" fu scritta nel 1894.

Ithaca ottenne un pubblico globale dopo la sua lettura del 1994 al funerale dell'ex first lady degli Stati Uniti, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Se ti metti in viaggio per Itaca

augurati che sia lunga la via,

piena di conoscenze e d’avventure.

Shamsia Hassani, 1988 | Afghanistan's First Female Street Artist

"I want to colour over the bad memories of war on the walls, and if I colour over these bad memories, then I erase [war] from people's minds.

I want to make Afghanistan famous for its art, not its war" - Shamsia Hassani.

Afghan artist Shamsia Hassani risks all to bring color to war-torn Kabul with her street art and murals.

Born April 1988, she is the first female graffiti artist of Afghanistan.

Through her artworks, Shamsia portrays Afghan women in a male dominant society.