"Any art is a brief sort of magic"- Q&A with Ella Frances Sanders
To enter the world of author and illustrator Ella Frances Sanders is to enter a world of compassion, wonder, and small celebrations.
Ella and I originally met as many people do these days—through email. This was back when we had the same editor at Ten Speed Press, Kaitlin Ketchum. I was working on the book Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break, and Ella just so happened to have included the word in her book Lost in Translation.
Since that fortuitous connection we have in fact met in person, sharing a love of art, food, and the wonder of the small things all around us. Her most recent book Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe is a particular favorite of mine, a reminder of how vast the universe is, and how many things in it there are to pique our curiosity.
Ella’s work often intersects with food, whether it’s a quote or fascination with untranslatable phrases and proverbs. Here she shares with us about her process and inspirations.
When did you start making art and how did you end up becoming a professional illustrator/author?
I think this would vary depending on one's definition of art. I grew up in a family that always encouraged creating, and I'm certain we made a lot of ghastly but wonderfully innocent things. I took an unhappy year of fine art after finishing school, but my intention was to study English literature at university, because words seemed able to say more at that point.
The professional part was almost entirely accidental. I was interning for a company based in Morocco in the months before starting university, and towards the end of this time I wrote and illustrated a short blog post about 'untranslatable' words. It went viral, with the result that I suddenly had to choose between saying yes to a publisher, or deferring university. I felt completely at sea, but I chose a book, and have figured out what I want my work to look like, and how I want it to develop, on my own—solitudinous but ultimately rewarding years.
Can you give us a little insight into the process of your work, and how you go from idea to finished illustration?
My process differs quite a bit depending on whether it is a freelance commission or a book project (I've done three now). My process differs quite a bit depending on whether it is a freelance commission or a book project (I've done three now), and with the books, process has also depended somewhat on the publisher. I do enjoy the contrast of working alone on freelance commissions and working with an editor, and with others, on a book. But I can use my more recent book, Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe, as an example.
A book with fifty-one chapters, the written content came before any ideas for images, and the manuscript was a finished draft before I started with seriousness on the illustrations. But with each chapter, I would sketch one or two ideas, and then more often than not find that I had a very clear picture of what I wanted each to be—only in a couple of instances did I redo and replace illustrations, because the further along you get, the more you can see whether or not they are coming together in a cohesive way.
From a sketch it becomes thin outlines and then watercolor, over the course of several hours, sometimes in several different sections in the case of Eating the Sun, and then pieces are scanned into the computer. Anything requiring layers comes together, and small edits too, in terms of neatening-up or color adjustments.
I've been finding it more and more astonishing actually, the creating of something from thin air and one's head. Any art is a brief sort of magic.
You have written and illustrated two books that are all about words and expressions from other places. What are some of your favorites?
I really adore many of the Japanese words, concepts, like komorebi and tsundoku and kintsugi—there is such a long and beautifully winding history of poetry and nature and philosophy. It has been interesting on occasion to peel English back further though, because in some cases the language does have words for more abstract and ephemeral things, they've just long fallen out of use. For example, we have a word for the warmth of the sun on a cold day, 'apricity'.
The words and expressions that appear unique to a language and culture are immensely revealing in some ways, they show a little of what is valued, spoken of, kept safe, revered.
(I am also, of course, very fond of the Swedish nouns fika and tretår.)
Why do you think there are so many proverbs and expressions centered around food?
It is life, I suppose, food is life. It is essential to our continuation as families and communities, and we tend to grow well when the food we are growing is also well. The industrialization of food is catastrophic for cultures, we are losing nuanced, important ways of keeping our bodies alive, and I find that hugely saddening—yes, it is necessary to progress pieces of a civilization, but throwing away or disregarding tradition and more ancient types of wisdom and learning is downright foolish. We are so presumptuous, to always think we know better than what has come before.
Is there a certain meal or food ritual that you have when you are doing creative work?
It seems that I do some of my best thinking after toast.
Who are some of the artists and food people that you are inspired by?
I go back to the work of Vija Clemens often, Barbara Hepworth, the botanical drawings of early illustrators like Elizabeth Blackwell (1707-1758), and a number of artists working in different fields to me: wood sculptors, ceramicists, food and still life photographers, especially anyone working with or writing about the color blue.
But most inspiration is found for me not in particular people, or singular pieces of art, not in galleries and museums, but 'mundane' moments that fill out each day, either days of mine or of others, the noticing of small details or the things that trip people up, or down.
What do you find intriguing about the intersection of food and art?
A lot of food falls into a category of art, I think, in terms of care and thought and creativity, and the intersection between the food and art certainly contains a great deal of love, which is always an intriguing place to look. The differing timescales are also very interesting, both offering sustenance and answers to the most human, irresistible parts of ourselves.
Thank you Ella!
Be sure to give Ella a follow on Instagram and check out her website where you can learn more about her books and even order prints of some of her wonderful illustrations.
Want to learn more about artists working at the intersection of food, art, and land? Check out our Art section.
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