Wer ist eigentlich Khatia Chitorelidze? Und was mag/macht sie für Kinderbücher? Drei Fragen an die Künstlerin aus Georgien.
– How did you start to illustrate books for children (and young people)?
Everything began with my enrollment at Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts, Faculty of graphic design, department of book design and illustration. After graduating, I continued working on my books at Art Book Center, and working with other illustrators gave me an enormous, interesting experience. In the beginning, I did not think of publishing my books or achieving one particular goal, I was just drawing and working to develop myself further and further. Then, I had several successes in illustration sphere – I got chosen as one of the illustrators at Bologna Book Fair in 2015 and its catalogue printed my works. Earlier, I won the Picture Book Contest, hold during the Tbilisi Book Days in 2015. All these achievements boosted my self-confidence and gave me stimulus to advance even further and create more interesting children’s, and not only, books.
– Which of your books should everybody be familiar with (and why)?
In my opinion, society should be most familiar with “The Fox Family”, as this book is already printed in Bologna illustration catalogue and is more or less familiar for people in illustration sphere, and most importantly, because of its content – it depicts the relations between humans and animals.
Which theme or motif would you love to work on in a children’s book some day?
I enjoy working on the themes like death, natural laws and phenomena, as parents avoid talking about them with their children. I want to depict such themes in a childish way – in understandable, appropriate form for little ones.
Currently, I am working on picture book, called “Dreams of Animals”, which is about the dreams of cat, mouse, snail, and bear. Children are often afraid of their dreams, considering them real. That’s why I want to depict this theme in an appropriate form for them.
Im Augenblick arbeite ich an einem Bilderbuch, das „Die Träume der Tiere“ heißt. Es geht um die Träume von einer Katze, einer Maus, einer Schnecke und einem Bären. Oft haben Kinder Angst vor ihren Träumen, weil sie sie für Realität halten. Darum versuche ich, dieses Thema in einer für sie angemessenen Form aufzugreifen.