Thank you so much for having me, Justin. When I was about nine years old my answer to the question "what do you want to do when you grow up?" was actor, artist, writer. Which is a pretentious answer for a nine year old but oh well, I suppose I was a little bit pretentious, but I guess I meant what I said because I've done all three of those things professionally as an adult. My parents are both artists--my mom is a weaver, my dad is a potter, and my extended family on both sides is made up of highly creative people.
I grew up in Santa Barbara, California. I've always drawn and painted, and from as far back as I can remember I was making up stories and illustrating them. I was passionate about playing pretend, I was definitely one of those kids who would live inside a game for days at a time. Eventually I discovered theater, which felt like a bigger game of make believe, and I really fell in love with it. But I think both of my interests (visual art and theater) spring from an interest in make-believe.
I see that you studied Drama at Juilliard and was a professional actor until you moved into publishing, very similarly to me being a dancer turned illustrator. How has your background in the theater world shaped your storytelling as an author/illustrator and how was that transition?
I didn't know you were a dancer! That makes me very happy. I am currently at work on the third Julián book in the series, and it is called, Julián is a Dancer. It's about that threshold moment when you enter a creative process with other people for the first time, and how intimidating it is at first but also how thrilling once the first step into the room has been taken.
So there were lots of practical ways my work as an actor informed my pivot to this new industry. But on a process level I think I am making use of much of the same vocabulary, and using similar principals as guidelines. In drama school one of the phrases you hear most often is "be specific" which is something I really try to do in my illustration. I like for every character to feel as embodied as possible, that's important to me. I think I also see the page as a kind of stage, in terms of the way I like to frame action. Another virtue of the theater I want to try to keep in mind more often is the possibility that is afforded by a really deep depth of field, it allows several different threads to be at play at once, and that's something I love in art, any kind of polyphony. I think I also tend to sort of act while I'm drawing, I'm making the faces, I'm trying out the movements in my own body. I also try to think of drafts of a book as rehearsal--a physical process you use to get the story in your body, so that when you do the final art I know what I'm doing so I can be loose.
When Julián is a Mermaid came out, everyone I know and who know the true me sent me the announcement. Not to exaggerate, but this is one of my favorite children's books ever. I've never felt more seen in a book. I, too, grew up in New York, had a secret love of mermaids, but unlike Julián, I didn't show my true love until I was older.
When Julián is a Mermaid came out, everyone I know and who know the true me sent me the announcement. Not to exaggerate, but this is one of my favorite children's books ever. I've never felt more seen in a book. I, too, grew up in New York, had a secret love of mermaids, but unlike Julián, I didn't show my true love until I was older.
I'd love to hear what inspired you to create the book and how did Julián come to you as he is? I mean, did you hear stories of me when I was eight years old?!
Wow, I love this question so much. It is incredibly, powerfully affirming to me to get to hear that from a reader, thank you so much.
I had a very clear goal for myself, which was to make the Juliáns of the world feel seen, and even celebrated by that seeing. I was deeply inspired by the documentary Paris is Burning about the golden age of the ballroom scene in New York in the '80's, the first time I saw it I immediately watched it over from the beginning. Those ballroom artists had created something astonishing. I was also pained by how many of those kids--because they were so young!--had been forced out of their birth families due to their unwillingness to reign in their self-expression. And of course they created new families with long legacies in the establishment of the different houses and family structures in which this culture thrived.
With this picture book I wanted to reach way back to the early childhood of kids like Julián, and give them a story in which they express something deep about themselves, and are seen for who they are, and celebrated. Just a story of pure love and recognition being exchanged between two generations. I wanted to bottle that feeling you get when one of your elders really sees you and loves what they see. I really didn't write the book with just kids in mind, I had hoped it would reach the grown mermaids too, so it makes me so happy to hear your saw yourself in it's pages.
As a New York, I've attended the Mermaid Parade for several years. It is sort of my Pride celebration. I've always loved the parade just from its sheer inclusiveness. Being a mermaids doesn't come with the expectations and standards of what it means to be "human." It is a celebration of all people, from all backgrounds, ages, body types, cultures, etc. What drives you as an artist to celebrate representation in your work and in the book space?
This is what I love about the Mermaid Parade too! Despite being a dress-up as a fantastical creature parade, it is its human-ness that is moving to me. I love that it's on a day when it's SO hot and it's in the direct sun so everybody is all sweaty, and kind of naked, and truly, truly the crowd is made up of a raucously heterogenous sample of New York Humans, I absolutely love it.
I think showing the world we live in means showing a diverse world. And beyond being accurate, beyond being fair, it's interesting to move your point of view around, and to remember that really it is only ever just that, a point of view in an vast number of points, each as real as you.
I just saw the announcement that Julián is a Mermaid will be making its way to become an animated feature, led by the Academy Award nominated director Louise Bagnall with Cartoon Saloon. How did it feel to be approached about the adaption and what are your hopes for the feature?
Last question, which I know I've personally pondered for ages, but if you were to sprout a tail right this second, what would it look like?
I'm so glad you asked. This season my tail is going to be like a black plum with the occasional scale of nacreous pearl, but my fins will be tipped in vermillion.
Check out more about Jessica Love, HERE, and follow her on Instagram @jesslovedraws.
That's all, Merfolx! Thank you for joining me on this month long journey through the seas! As MerMay comes to an end, I hope you've celebrated your mermaid-ness but also, in doing so, as Jessica said, your humanness! And for those who are in the NYC area, the Mermaid Parade is June 20th! Hope to see you there! Ciao!
