Ana Sainz Quesada (Palma, 1990), known artistically as ‘Anapurna’, remembers her teenage days, when reading or drawing comics “was considered geeky” and “even more so if you were a woman”. Things in this field have changed in Spain and, “little by little, it seems that dedicating oneself to graphic novels”, as is the case with this Mallorcan artist, “is considered cooler than before”. However, she points out, “there is still a long way to go before we reach the level of Belgium or France”, where, to give an example, there are contemporary art galleries that are dedicated exclusively to the exhibition of comics. She explains from Palma, during a telephone interview with Diario de Ibiza, two days before her appearance at the Escriviure cycle of conferences, scheduled for today at 8pm at the Teatro España, in Santa Eulà ria.
What topics will she address at the conference at Escriviure?
I want to make an X-ray of the world of comics, explaining how I understand it. I will talk about its origins, which for me are not in ‘Little Nemo’ but in cave paintings. That’s where the narrative arises, of which the comic is a part. The medium I have chosen to tell stories is the comic, but I could have chosen literature. I will also explain how stories are constructed and how I approach the creative processes.
Why did you choose comics to tell stories?
Because what’s bred in the bone will out in the flesh. When I was little I thought I would end up being a writer, because I read and wrote a lot and having a bookseller father and a publisher uncle it was natural for me to choose that path. It was at the age of 14 when I became very interested in comics. My father had owned a bookshop specializing in comics in Palma and there were a lot of them around the house. I started to consume a lot of manga. At that time we geeky teenagers loved it, I’ll tell you about it in the conference. It was by reading comics that I took up drawing again, which I had abandoned when I was little. I didn’t start drawing comics, but doing illustrations. Then I studied Art and Fine Arts in Barcelona.
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