Illustrator Nominee: Lithuania

Kęstutis Kasparavičius
Lithuania, Illustrator

I think that my illustrations are musical. When I leaf through my books, it is as if I hear the works of composers. Behold, a flock of books is flying past, and Handel grandly resounds. A melting snowman is standing there; it is as if the melancholy Dowland were being played. Ducks are dancing on ice; that, of course, is Christoph Willibald Gluck himself.

- Kęstutis Kasparavičius

Kęstutis Kasparavičius was born in 1954 in Aukstadvaris, near Vilnius, Lithuania. Kęstutis's parents were teachers at a primary school. The school where his father and mother taught was established in an old manor building. Although at that time schools could boast only minimal teaching resources, he still remembers a bookcase full of books in the classroom. Not surprisingly, Kasparavičius was one of those students who read almost all of them.

Subsequently, he left Aukstadvaris and came to Vilnius where he studied choir conducting. After finishing school in 1972, he decided to transfer from music to fine arts. 'The prospect of standing alone in front of a large crowd of hostile people and gesticulating with my hands madly seemed revolting to me since I am a placid and introvert person by nature,' confesses the illustrator.

In 1972 he entered Vilnius Institute of Arts (now the Academy of Arts) to specialise in graphic design. Kasparavičius was not prepared profesionally for such studies but his older brother, a student of the same institute, helped him and taught him the intricacies of drawing. There were periods of disillusionment and apathy and some unavoidable breaks when he had to spend two years in the Soviet army, but finally, in 1981, he graduated from the Institute of Arts.

In 1984 he was asked to illustrate a book and since then he has been working both as a free-lance illustrator and author of children's books. Watercolour is his preferred medium. He has published 45 books and has been translated into sixteen languages and been published all over the world.