I am just going to come out and say that I am completely inspired by Xanelé Puren's creative activism - and I am very honoured that she took the time to answer my many questions for the series. Enjoy!!!
About you
Can you tell us a little
bit about yourself (where you’re from, what you do, any fun details)?
I'm a 26-year-old Capetonian. Mother to a
very large and fluffy cat named Bob. Wife to Jeremy, who is not only my life
partner, but my business partner as well. Together, Jeremy and I co-founded and
run a “child centred” design company called See-Saw-Do.
Could you describe your
journey to becoming an artist?
I've always considered myself to be a
“creative being”. My mother studied fine arts, so I guess it runs in the
family. Illustration in children's books really made me aspire to want to be in
the creative industry. I ended up studying Visual Communication Design at
Stellenbosch University where I discovered that I have a great passion for
illustration.
Do you remember the
first illustration you ever drew?
I can't recall the very first picture I
drew. I do however recall that I've always loved drawing. At 6 years of age, on
my first day at pre-primary, I was extremely excited over my first drawing. I
was busy drawing a horse and my picture covered the entire page. The teacher
tapped me on the shoulder and told me not to cover the page and suggested that
I use less colours, because it was taking too much time. I was quite set aback
by that comment and that's probably why I have a vivid memory of what that
particular drawing looked like.
What do you do when you
are not illustrating?
See-Saw-Do, our design studio, requires a
lot more from me than just illustration. We have to manage projects, do site
visits and a whole bunch of other things required of us to make the business
run smoothly and have a maximum impact on the children and communities we work
in.
Fortunately,
when you live in Cape Town there is always so much happening in the city (first
thursdays, rooftop movie screenings, gallery openings etc). I love climbing
Lion's Head, all the various hiking trails along Table Mountain. Cape Town has
loads of food markets, my personal is the Oranjezicht City Farm Market. We're
almost at that market every Saturday morning.
On illustrating
How did you become
interested in illustrating, and particularly illustrating literature for
children?
Growing up, my mother used to expose us
to many many illustrated story books. These books definitely cultivated an
appreciation for illustration and stories. As mentioned in a previous answer, I
discovered my true passion for illustration whilst at University. Our final
year brief was "design to make a difference" and I decided to focus
on designing for children. During that year I designed two books and we
beautified 3 Early Childhood Development Centres with relevant educational
murals.
Currently, I don't focus solely on
illustrating children's literature. The illustrations I currently produce are
done for See-Saw-Do with the goal to enhance and beautify child environments. I
do draw in my free-time as well and apart from designing three of my own books
I’ve also illustrated a book for the Joy Bracelet initiative.
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| The JOY Book's vibrant and colourful illustrations by Xanale Puren. |
I love investing time and energy into
beautifying spaces where children live, learn and play - whether it's through
classroom upgrades, and makeovers, illustrations or through an illustrated
mural. Being able to create something that will have a positive impact on a
child, their play environment, their learning environment or their creativity is
extremely rewarding.
Your artwork has been
described as having a “‘child-like’ playfulness”, where do you get your ideas
for your drawings from?
Sometimes I have to create illustrations
according to a brief. In other cases, I have to come up with themes, design
solutions. More often than not, the ideas flow onto paper quite effortlessly. I
know that my past, present, the crazy information age that we live in obviously
has an impact on the creative mind which in turn has an impact on one's work.
Beyond illustrating for
children’s literature, you are the co-founder of the social enterprise
See-Saw-Do, could you tell us the story behind it?
See-Saw-Do was born
out of my final year studying Visual Communication Design at Stellenbosch
University. Our brief was “design to make a difference” and I decided to focus
my energy and creativity on designing for children. I ended up seeing a great
need for beautification at local Early childhood development [ECD] centres as
well as a need for educational books. During 2010 I designed 3 English/Xhosa
work/image picture books and three relevant themed murals. I entered this idea
for the Sappi Ideas that Matter competition and won a grant that funded
printing 2000 of my books + running costs to re-paint more ECD centres. This
grant gave me the confidence to pursue See-Saw-Do post graduation. My husband
(who played a big role in the entire process up to this point) also decided to
devote 100% of his time to make this initiative a success and we’ve been
running for 4 years.
See-Saw-Do has
developed into a company that re-imagines and designs beautiful, functional and relevant child
environments. Our scope of work includes mural makeovers, spatial upgrades, and
interior classroom makeovers.
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| See-Saw-Do beautifies child environments through beautiful, bright relevant themed murals. Image courtesy of Xanele Puren |
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| See-Saw-Do's Interior Classroom Makeovers. Image courtesy of Xanele Puren |
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| Interior of a Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU) bus. Image courtesy of Xanele Puren |
This year, we will also start working on designing and installing exterior play spaces. We fund our projects by partnering up with corporate companies, NGO’s and our local government. We’re dreaming big
and super amped about what the future holds for See-Saw-Do, the creative
possibilities and the impact it can have on children's lives.
On Children’s
Literature and Golden Baobab
I still have quite a few books from my childhood
library! I love a tale from Liberia called "The Vingananee and the tree
toad", a Russian folk tale "Varenka", "Where the Wild
things are" by Maurice Sendak, "Moomin" by Tove Jansson to name
but a few. All of these books have beautiful illustrations and captivating
stories.
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| Books from Xanele's childhood. Image courtesy of Xanele Puren |
How did you hear about
the Golden Baobab Prize for Illustrators?
I received a email that was sent out by the Golden
Baobab to illustrators and writers who might be interested in participating.
Could you tell us about
the piece you submitted and the inspiration behind it?
We had a very strict
brief we had to use to base our illustrations on. Brief number one was "A boy and his little brother are lost
in a big city market. The older boy is pulling his brother who is distracted by
a chicken." Brief number two: "Jama only had 15 minutes to choose
books before the library closed. He could see, out of the corner of his eye,
the librarian's foot tapping nearby. But Jama needed to take books his father
would believe he was interested in."
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| Jama is late to borrow a book from the library. Image via Golden Baobab |
What was your reaction
to winning the inaugural prize?
I was super surprised, super stoked and extremely
happy! I definitely threw a few air punches!
On Books and More
What are you reading
right now?
“I am Malala: The girl
who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban” by Malala Yousafzai and
“The minor adjustment beauty salon: The Nr1 ladies detective agency” by
Alexander Mccall Smith, as well as “Parenting beyond pink and blue” by Christina
Spears Brown.
As an illustrator, have
you ever judged a book by its cover? If so, what are some of your favourite
book covers?
I often fall into the
trap where I don’t have time to properly browse through books in a bookstore
and I end up pick a book with the most aesthetically pleasing cover. I’ve had
my fair share of success and failure using this method! A charming book I came
across using this method was “In the sea there are crocodiles” by Fabio Geda.
One of my personal favourite covers is an illustrated cover by Carson Ellis for
a book called “Wildwood”.
What’s next?
See-Saw-Do will be moving
into a new studio space later this month. I hope to make the space cat friendly
to accommodate our extremely social and affectionate cat. We have a few
exciting projects lined up and if all goes according to plan, we’ll be
expanding our services to include designing and installing multi-sensory play
spaces. This will add a new dimension to our work and I’m very excited to see where
it will lead us! One of our main beneficiaries, Eldene Primary, will hopefully
be the first space to benefit from a new play area.
