50 years old | Illustrator Kati Närhi thinks that picture books can approach poetry and are suitable for both children and adults

Last monthly illustrator Kati Närhi traveled to South Korea, where he participated in the Nambook International Children’s Book Festival. The visit was joyful, because his latest book Missing received one of the Purple Island awards there at the Nami Concours 2023.

Missing tells the story of a little boy whose best friend moves away. The child misses his friend and sees him everywhere.

What is special about the book is that it tells the story of a little boy completely without text. In addition, the colors in the book have been reduced to blue and yellow at the beginning. At the end comes red.

“I wanted to make a wordless book where I tell with colors and shapes. The limited color palette is easy to manage. The work goes smoothly when the color scheme is locked before starting. When there are few colors, they get a role more easily,” says Närhi.

Whole is a carefully thought-out work of art, which was selected as one of the most beautiful children’s books last year by the Finnish Book Arts Committee.

In the book, blue represents the main character and yellow represents his longing. At the end, red starts to replace yellow when a new friend is found. It could be interpreted as friendship being fickle.

“In human relationships, it often happens that someone remains in the background and the other comes forward. It is essential here that the child reader can find the story himself. I’m also interested in whether a child’s interpretation of it is different from an adult’s.”

Festivalwhere Närhi went, is held on Nami Island, which is in the Han River a couple of hours away from the capital Seoul.

“The island is a tourist destination with restaurants, galleries, small shops and events. It is owned by a family that organizes a picture book competition every two years. The exhibition of awarded works has been on display for two years,” says Närhi.

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“I don’t really think about the target audience.”

This year, the Nambook festival had a Finnish theme and Kuvittajat also visited from Finland Anne Vasko and Laura Merz. The main prize of the Nami Concourse competition went to the name brand Maguma, which is backed by a famous Spaniard Marcos Guardiola Martin.

South Korea is a big market for children’s books. In Seoul, Närhi visited a children’s book center and noticed that there are really interesting picture books being made in the country.

I cringe award-winning work Missing is aimed quite clearly at children, but he himself hopes that its story could fascinate anyone.

His previous picture book Nothing Närhi made for adults, but tried to put levels in it for children as well.

“I would like picture books to be close to poetry. And it is not always meaningful to distinguish them from cartoons. Is it Nothing adult or children’s book, picture book or cartoon? Adults often read to children. Why can’t books be for both. I don’t really think about the target audience.”

Närhi is probably right that the boundaries are not essential and his last two books can be classified into many genres.

Surrealistic Nothing tells about a city whose inhabitants are paralyzed by the cold wind into joylessness and helplessness. Adults interpret the story as a metaphor for depression. Children, on the other hand, would recognize the atmosphere of a fairy tale.

Närhi has added a few visual references to other arts: by Robert Doisneau to photograph, René Magritte for painting and by Georges Méliès to the movie.

“I wasn’t looking for them, but they came along while I was making them and they seemed fun. It often feels that new information supersedes the old, but apparently fascinating things remain in the memory when they emerge from there”, Närhi thinks.

Nothing appeared in 2020 at exactly the same time when the corona pandemic shut down society. Närhi says that many read the book from that point of view as well. In his opinion, the story can be seen in any trauma survivor. Fairy tales have always been open to interpretation.

“I crashed Joseph Pintauro and Norman Laliberté to the picture book The Magic Box, which deals with death. It is partly made with collage technique and is not aimed at least for small children. It made me think that picture books can be made in a different way.”

Magic Box the back cover says that a stupid book scares but makes others happy.

It is not easy to publish picture books that are not clearly aimed at children. Many publishers praised Närhle Nothing -book as wonderful, but no one published it because there was no suitable compartment for it.

It was suggested to Närhe to edit the book in the direction of both a comic book and a children’s book, but he did not want to make compromises and finally published it himself. The edition is coming to an end.

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“Sometimes the cartoon feels cramped.”

Before Närhi made cartoons of his picture books. It started already as a child, when he enjoyed riding, read Hevoshullu and made cartoons on the subject himself.

Närhe’s main work is comics Agnes-trilogy. It’s about an orphan girl who lives with her grandmother and solves riddles. After the last part, Närhi announced that he would stop making comics. However, he himself does not remember doing so.

“Sometimes the cartoon feels cramped. The world is better present in the large drawings of picture books. But now I have a comic in the works again. It takes time to complete, as it constantly changes as if it had a life of its own.”