One of the things I love most about being able to present art via the Friday Favorites format is that it gives me an opportunity to share a variety of art styles, techniques, genres, mediums, etc. The internet is a fascinating place to discover artists and it feeds my fascination along the broad spectrum within which my interests lie.

Today I bring you something a bit different than more recent Friday Favorites. Allow me to introduce you to artist Irisz Agocs.

(Geek)

I am certainly a geek about many things, one is collecting children’s picture books. It should come as no surprise then that the art of Irisz Agocs would be appealing. There is an innocent and precious quality to her watercolor images that makes me smile, and after a couple of weeks of overwhelming work and battling colds, a smile is definitely something I need!

Irisz is an illustrator residing in Budapest, Hungary. In reading a few of the interviews with her on the net I find her a fascinating creator.

“I’m a fanatical gallery visitor, I also spend hours surfing the internet, visiting and bookmarking illustration sites. My second favorite place after galleries are the bookshops, I collect picture books. So I like to see different creations in various styles, that inspires me.”

That statement alone indicates that she is a kindred spirit. She is one of us! 🙂

As I sat gathering images for her profile this morning, our neighborhood was hammered by a rainstorm that started suddenly, ushered in by a very loud, very close crash of thunder. Perhaps it was Mother Nature helping guide me in which images to include.

Iricz’s characters are so whimsical and playful. I am especially fond of her pig:

Cute, ain’t he?

And of course you cannot illustrate pigs without drawing inspiration from that well-known idiom:

One of the things I find amazing about illustration like this (and I think I mentioned this in the profile on Anne-Julie Aubry) is that talented artists, like Irisz Agocs, can evoke such emotion with their use of line work and color. For example, take the image below. You can just sense the sadness, the boredom, the loneliness, can’t you? I looked at this image and the first thing that I imagined was this little girl, having just put down C.S. Lewis’ famous novel, goes to see if she can find a portal to her own magical world.

If you click the image above you will see that joy follows quickly on the heels of sadness.

I always hesitate to call this art simple, as it is anything but. That seems like an insult and yet the way I self-define that term I mean it as a great compliment. I think that it appears deceptively simple and that is why I marvel at what can be accomplished with a few well placed lines, some color, and a wonderful imagination.

Like the image above–you can just feel the struggle this little mouse is undergoing trying to bring home his treasure. My back aches in sympathy just looking at the little guy. Poor guy. However, hard work does have its rewards:

I mentioned how much fun I think Iricz’s characters are. They just beg to be put to work illustrating children’s literature. Check out these guys aren’t they great?:

I can almost hear their wacky conversations as they rush off to work. Looking at illustrations like this fire the imagination of the young boy who is still very much alive inside of me. The multi-headed dragon is just the kind of image that would be fun to present to a class of children and ask them to make up a story about it.

Great zebra! I love the odd shapes and forms of Irisz’s creations. Though they share some commonality with the work of similar illustrators, they are uniquely her own. I think the use of watercolors rather than acrylic or digital painting gives them so much more character.

Watercolor gives them a gritty texture that adds depth to the image. Sometimes her work, for example the cat picture above, reminds me of the pen and ink illustrations of Tim Burton.

Another really fun image. When I was in elementary school our country school library had a copy of an elephant joke book–that’s right, an entire book with elephant jokes in it. I found it hysterical and can vividly recall both laughing out loud and reading the jokes aloud to others. No doubt the humor is the kind that only a kid would find funny, but it made an impression that I can recall 3 decades later.

It should come as no surprise that I am fond of these images of stars and the moon. The above image pretty well illustrates my feelings about astronomy.

The image below reminds me of the children’s book, Goodnight, Moon. Haven’t we all felt that way at some point in our lives, that the moon was looking down on us and smiling?

Irisz Agocs longs to be a children’s book illustrator and judging from my interpretations of a recent blog entry she is on her way! I would love to see her work end up over here in the states.

I believe Irisz’s work is universally appealing because of what she is trying to do with her creativity:

“I would like to make people to forget the serious thing and difficulty for a moment if they look at my pictures. I hope that i can budge the child inside of everyone. I guess the feelings, and the childish logics on my illustrations are so familiar for everybody, and that brings them very close. I like to make people smile, and to be a bit cheerful.”

And how can the child inside not be budged with images like Giraffe’s Dream above or Batman below? I giggle just looking at these.

Yes, I do believe that the work of Irisz Agocs is tailor made for the wonderful, quirky stories that can be told in children’s fiction.

She captures emotion so well. Whether it be the angst over the act of kissing the frog:

or the anxiety of an upcoming trip:

I hope you have all enjoyed something a bit different from the norm (or maybe it isn’t so different after all).

Before I let you go forth to enjoy your weekend I couldn’t let you go without sharing an image that I think all dog lovers, and wish-they-were-dog-owners, can relate to:

And a couple more melancholy images,

like the melancholy puppet and the sad dolly.

Irisz Agocs has much, much more work that you need to check out. You can see more of her work on her blog. You can also read more detailed (and interesting) reviews with Irisz here and here.

She also has a shop where you can purchase prints and a how-to blog, both of which should be checked out. Iricz Agocs is a fun, talented, whimsical artist who seems very down to earth. She shares the same loves that many of us share and the goals that she has with her work make me happy to have discovered her.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Next week is Etsy Week which, like Book Week, will culminate in some great prize packs. For Jules, and all others who like old folks, I leave you with this.