Comic In February: Power Paola

Goodness me, January has been long. But now it’s February and we have a new month and a new comic illustrator. This month we feature Columbian artist Power Paola. I’m particularly excited about her purple portrait series which she, as she reveals in her interview,  drew in the cafés of Buenos Aries just for you lovely Ronsters and I. Read the whole conversation here.

I'm intrigued by your name. Can you tell me something about the name Power Paola

My name is Paola, but I was baptized at the metro Montreuil in Paris in 2003 as Power Paola. I don’t know if it was a mistake or it was magic. I was crying, I was in Paris and I was lost in the banlieue, and an afro-descendant guy asked my name, I said, «Je m’appelle Paola,» and he replied me back, «Power?» I repeated to him, «No, Paola.» 
I wrote my name in the ticket and gave it to him: Paola. And he wrote me back: Power Paola.

Tell me about the illustrations that will be featured in the newsletter. What kind of works are they?

Purple People is a series of portraits of people of Buenos Aires in Summer of 2023. I drew them for you guys. I wanted to show you day by day while you were in winter, how the people were at the city, the cafés and plazas, with purple ink (an spiritual color). I like the idea of presence, transformation and the connection with people when I draw them in situ. In a world where nowadays individuality grows, we lost the ways of connection with others in presence, so I found it very powerful for me and others to have that space and time. I will do the same thing in Luzern at my residence at Fumetto, at the historic Hotel Schweizerhof and the streets around. I have to explore the city and meet the people there.

Air Hostess and I love insects so I wanted to be an entomologist as well. 

I remember «Animal», a guy in Sydney when he saw my work at Firstdraft Gallery, he said my work was social-expresionist-postpunk-postnaïve and I liked it, hehe.

Daily Life, people, identity, love, feminism, queer, immigration, ecology.

Be close to nature, walk and draw in the city, talk with a friends, read, write and ride my bike. 

What do you love drawing the most?

I love to draw people, plantas, animals. Draw the alive.This month I started painting my plants and I’m learning a lot about structures, the attention and transformation in another way. Is another thing that give me joy.

I almost drew five thousand drawings for the movie Virus Tropical by Santiago Caicedo, based in my graphic novel, I Love Jung and I was part of the collectives: La Casa Telepática, Chicks on Comics and Taller 7.

Why are illustrations/comics/cartoon special and what can they do that other media can’t? 

I like the way they connect with people, the language is so direct. The symbiosis of text and image is magical. With paintings you got the attention or connection in another way but with the readers you got an instant connection, it’s so directly, so easy, It flows.