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Journalism of Courage
In the picture-book scene in Australia, illustrator Nicki Greenberg’s style stands out. She replaces humans with fantastical creatures as characters for her books — her personal response to what the story demands. “For me, drawing characters as people on page would reduce those characters,” says the Melbourne-based illustrator, best known for her award-winning graphic adaptations of The Great Gatsby and Hamlet. “With Gatsby, I really wanted to pay a tribute. So I wanted something that is larger than life. With Hamlet, they needed to be fantastical beings; they were made of ink and they could morph and splatter and stretch into expressive forms,” says Greenberg, who was in Delhi for her illustration masterclass for the Jumpstart Festival organised by German Book Office. The festival, now taking place in Bangalore, ended on Saturday.
In 2013, Greenberg was a part of a well-received young adult graphic anthology titled Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean (Young Zubaan), which comprised 20 illustrators from Australia and India. The collection of stories, curated by Payal Dhar, Anita Roy and Kirsty Murray, is a response to the crimes against women in 2012 in both India and Australia. The collaboration, says Greenberg, took place over Skype and emails. “I actually did my piece independently. When Kirsty Murray approached me to contribute, I had a child at home. A collaboration is really demanding and over Skype, even more so,” she says.
The picture-book space in India is still new to Greenberg and she is looking forward to exploring it. “I haven’t had the time to interact with Indian authors or artists.
It was only during the Indo-Australian collaborative book, Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean that I really got a sample of it. Priya Kurien and Amrita Patel’s works are really amazing. However, I’d like to pick up some ideas while I’m here,” says the illustrator, who is currently working on four picture books.
