Artist Anna Laitinen sent me a wonderful present in the mail all the way from Finland. It’s a perfect bound book she made a couple years ago called Proof of Winter. It is about how she gets ready for the approach of winter- “As preparation I cut a wind-proof haircut. Wherever it would b l o w from now, my hair would not be on my face.” The illustrations are mostly collages mixed with drawings. Anna layers paper and fabrics in shapes to create the backgrounds, objects or patterns. I like when pieces of fabric are cut out to reveal underlying layers- especially ones filled with printed text. I also really like how she used the hole punched circles to create a background for some of the illustrations. The circles have been punched from all different kinds of paper so each gives a little pop of color or texture. Anna has some more really beautiful work you should check out on her website- especially the paintings section. Also I have asked her to be part of our sketchbook series and luckily she has agreed- so look forward to that in the coming weeks. Thanks so much Anna!

© Julia Rothman 2007