We recently connected with Laura Orsolini and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The first ten years of my professional activity as a freelance illustrator were devoted to a variety of collaborations with magazines and advertising agencies.
It was an excellent training in meeting and interacting with diverse requests and subjects, which also offered me the chance to explore different facets of my visual skills. And yet, I felt that something was missing.
Besides my path as a visual artist, another passion of mine was trying to find its way out in the open: some stories were taking shape in my mind and demanded to be put on paper!
I was ready to move from illustrator to author-illustrator and I found the perfect field to apply my renewed creativity in children’s books.
My first solo project, “Klick”, was a picture book for which I created both the story and the illustrations. Published in 2002, it was the first of seven titles for which I am both the author of the text and the artist illustrator.
Those books were a meaningful experience because they offered me the opportunity for a full-rounded expression of the inner world, which is the primary source of my creativity.
That was also what triggered a further development of my artwork and the growth of a new portfolio, which eventually lead to the opening of my Etsy Shop where I sell my original art prints.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born in Rome, and since my childhood I had the chance to meet great stories, both told or written and often beautifully illustrated! So, while growing up, I naturally became a book-lover and later on, an illustrator and a children’s book author. I began my creative journey with a master in illustration at the European Institute of Design, in Rome. Eventually I attended many workshops on creative writing and children’s books illustration. After several years working as a professional for magazines and advertising, in 2002 I published my first picture book. It was followed by a dozen new titles, published in different countries (Germany, Korea, France, Canada and Italy). My work has gone around the world, participating in international illustration exhibitions. During these years, I also travelled around the world a bit, spending several years in Asia to arrive, in 2021, in Munich, Germany.
People interested in my art often ask me where I get my inspiration from: when working for a picture album or a magazine, my starting point is always the story/article I am going to illustrate. I focus on how to best translate the spirit of the text into a visual language.
However, in the last years I felt compelled to further extend my research. The result has been a new series of images not strictly related to a text but rather inspired by the multitude of inner images which spontaneously form in my mind.
I worked patiently to turn these ideas into drawings, in the hope they would resonate with a wider audience. I shared them on my social media, and since they received a warm welcome, I decided to open my own Etsy Shop and sell high quality prints of my original art: the beginning of a new adventure!
A variety of techniques and materials have been my trusted companions through my journey: my creativity stems from papers, pastels, brushes, and inks, as well as from my imagination and emotions.

Just in case you’re curious:
I have a sweet spot for the great children’s book illustrators of the Victorian era, and I inherited the great love for 14th and 15th Italian century painting from my mother.
Also, you will probably notice lots of readers and books depicted in my drawings! This is not just because books are a cherished item to collect or a captivating job for me: as a reader I have so often found in them the joy, the shelter, the fun or the momentum I needed.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience for me couples with curiosity: whenever I find myself being stalled at work, I look for an activity which can support and expand both my craft and my experience.
In 2010, I moved to Thailand for four years. While living in Asia, I found quite difficult to keep in touch with the western publishing circuit I’ve been working in, but the city of Bangkok had in store a wonderful opportunity for me!
I started searching for teaching opportunities and I got in touch with an international school which had a wonderful art program: they involved me in a one year project about the concept of Community. My workshop was implemented with the collaboration of the teachers. It turned out to be an amazing experience, the stimuli provided by the new environment and by the interaction with kids deeply enriched my creativity and, as I went back to my illustrator universe, I brought with me a treasure of new ideas and perspectives!
By the way, in Thailand I’ve also fallen in love with the world of hand made natural paper, which I still use for some of my projects!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

When creating an image, I am always trying to trigger a connection between my inner experiences and the viewer’s emotions. I had the most rewarding response with one of my first picture books, “Buon Compleanno”.
This title was born from my desire to reprocess a loss which happened in my family, to somehow partially mend it.
The original artwork I created for this album was displayed in an illustration exhibit and the curator eventually got in touch with me: a very young visitor, four years old, who had recently experienced himself a grave loss had fallen in love with my artwork and his mother wanted to acquire it. Whenever I feel in distress about my job, which by the way is wonderful as well as difficult, I come back to this rewarding memory, the chance of getting in touch with the viewers’ deep feelings.
One more thing: I’ve also found the opportunity to receive, and to give back, rewarding feedbacks about creativity on Instagram, through some wonderfully supportive communities of creators.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lauraorsolini.com/portfolio
• Instagram: @laura.0rsolini
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laura.orsolini.92/
• Other: https://www.saatchiart.com/lauraorsolini