When The New York Times selected Manya Stojic as one of the world top 10 illustrators of books for children in 2000, she was still a newcomer in international publishing. The country of her birth, Yugoslavia, had disintegrated in a domestic war. The once peaceful neighbours were killing each other, the children living in ethnically mixed communities were horrified by confronting the violent deaths of their dear ones. Manya, a young artist of Serbo-Croat ethnic heritage, was searching for the brightest colours to keep the children's dreams alive.
Though her native Yugoslavia disappeared from the world map, Manya's books continued bringing happiness to children worldwide. Editions of her books were published in Asia, America, and Europe, wining her critical acclaim. She was shortlisted for the prestigious British Kate Greenwood Award (2001, 2008), and other international awards for artists. Yet during my first interview with Manya at her London studio in winter 2006/07, when I asked her which of her many honours was the most important one for her artistic development, she said the being a mother to Luba, her rapidly growing multi-cultural daughter, was the best.
"Luba has always been my most strict and demanding art critic", said Manya. "She, like all the other children, is always straightforward in her critical judgement: she either likes the paintings, or not. Whatever critical acclaim a children's book illustrator may be awarded by an international jury of highly professional experts, if the paintings leave one's own child's imagination unaffected, one may feel unfulfilled as an artist."
For the following six years, whenever I returned to Europe, I made sure to always visit Manya in London, and continue chatting about her latest book projects. Each time, whether we talked in her studio, or at the kitchen table over a vegetarian meal, her London-born daughter Luba, surprised me with her questions. "You are not going to try to steal my grandma from me again this time, are you!?" Or, "Have you seen the green tree outside grandma's window? Sometimes, a fox family visits our garden..."
Luba has become an integral part of my interviews with Manya. It was Luba who told me about the colours of foxes inhabiting London gardens and lambs flying over the sky on rainy days. When during my second visit Luba disclosed in great secrecy that there were other animals hidden in her house, and there were both lions and elephants hiding in her second floor bedroom, I tried to keep my face straight. "If you don't believe me, please come to my room when my mom leaves."
The following morning, when Manya left for her job as a graphic design manager in one of England's biggest publishing houses, Pearsons, her six years old daughter Luba showed me her sketch book inhabited by blue lions, multi-coloured zebras, orange elephants, and other fantastic animals. They were drawn by crayons and were like a rainbow family composed of all possible and impossible colours. Even the clouds were made of magic animals like flying water buffalos, and other lovely creatures that Luba insisted she had befriended in Africa during her visits to her Zimbabwean grandparents.
A few years later, I asked Manya why so many of her books were being enjoyed by children living far away from Europe, she replied, that she never has a particular culture in mind while preparing her books. "The children of South Africa, China, Russia, Japan, USA, or any other country where my books happen to be published, may differ in their eating or clothing preferences, their games may also be as different as their languages, but in essence, all children are the same; they are curious! Curiosity is not a cultural or social phenomena, but something universally human. Watching the kids exploring their closest surroundings first with only their eyes and mouth, then gradually using their hands and legs, is like witnessing a beginning of their life-long journey... A journey to a magical world made of limitless shapes and colours."
According to Manya, each and ever child's journey is both very individual and very similar, and the artist's mission is to link children's natural curiosity with their sense of adventure. In contrast to the world inhabited by adults, where everything is measurable and thus more or less controllable, in the child's world, the line between reality and dream is often blurred, and this makes everything possible. Children's fantasy doesn't have limits. When I ask Manya, if that is one of the reasons, her colours and shapes so easily cross cultural boundaries and appeal to children regardless of their ethnic heritage, she says lightly, that she isn't a cultural anthropologist looking for reasons, but an illustrator playing with colours.
Though Manya downplays her role as a skilful cross-cultural communicator through art, a Japanese curator who had studied Manya's book illustrations, was particularly fascinated by the Japanese edition of Manya Stojic's "Rain". According to Hitomi Abe of Tokyo Musashino Art University, Manya's paintings may look just like simple illustrations for children, but in fact they are carefully composed pieces of art that not only Japanese children but also her fellow Japanese graphic designers and painters enjoy. When Hitomi, overwhelmed by "Rain's" compositions, that she insists are both complex and simple in design, contacts Manya with an idea of introducing her artworks in a Japanese online gallery, the reply came quickly: Manya courteously accepted the invitation.
When one of Hitomi's collaborators, a web programmer, asked me why Ms Stojic did not seem to care that the curator was still an art student, nor that the Japanese online gallery was just a startup with an uncertain future, I mentioned Luba. Who is Luba? The Japanese man inquired? Oh, Luba, I replied, is one of Ms. Stojic's most demanding art critics. We spent the next thirty minutes talking about Luba's magic world made of colourful animals hidden in her bedroom that just happened to be located next to her Yugoslavia-born mother's London studio.
Though, Yugoslavia ceased to exist as a state, it still lives in the minds of globally active artists. One of them, is Manya Stojic; a painter of children's dreams.
© 2013 Joseph Polack