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  • Roger Mello:Brazil Illustrator

In a way, Brazil is in the palette of colors I use and the multitude of issues, for many cultures living.

Roger Mello

Illustrator, writer, and playwright, Roger Mello was born in Brasilia, Brazil in 1965. He spent half of his life in Brasilia and half in Rio de Janeiro, where he currently lives and works. After graduating in Design from ESDI/UERJ, he worked with Ziraldo at Zapin. He creates in a variety of artistic media including film, theatre, and illustration. Mello is extremely prolific, publishing more than 100 books in the last 15 years.

Mello's art and writing are deeply rooted in his home country of Brazil, drawing on traditional folklore for his stories and continually experimenting with new artistic techniques. His illustrations use the bright, hot colors of his native country combining traditional patterns indigenous to Brazil with European cubist patterns for dramatic effect.

In her dissertation research on Mello's work, Tereza Harumi Kikuchi noted, "If we were to enumerate the influences to be found in the production of the illustrator, the list would surely be vast, since it would cover all fields of knowledge, from the plastic arts to literature, cinema, theater, popular culture and legends, urban life, technology, biology, the environment, philosophy, history… everything related to humanity is of interest to this artist… The narrative function is always present in Roger Mello's images and texts, and that explains his preference for time-related themes… The passing of time is the most constant feature of the artist's drawings and text. All Roger Mello's books deal with time, this coming to pass, the transformation produced by events. This transformation that makes the world go round."

Roger Mello has garnered many awards in his career including two Jabuti prizes for Best Illustration and Best Book for Young People (for The Mangue Boys), the Brazillian Chamber of Books Award from the Fondation Espace Enfants (FEE) in Switzerland, the Fundação Nacional do Livro Infantil e Juvenil (FNLIJ), and the Grand Prix International. In 2005, his illustrations for the popular verses in Nau Catarineta (The Ship Called Catarineta) were part of an itinerant show that toured Parisian libraries.

Selected Bibliography

Meninos do Mangue (Mangrove Boys) (2001) São Paolo: Companhia das Letrinhas.
Jardins (Gardens) By Roseana Murry (2001) Rio de Janeiro: Manati.
Nau Catarineta (The Ship Called Catarineta) (2004) Rio de Janeiro: Manati.
Maria Teresa (1996) Rio de Janeiro: Agir.
Será Mesmo Que é Bicho? (Is It Really Bug?) By Roger Mello and Angelo Machado (1996) Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira. [End Page 8]
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