When the text meets the illustrator, we start with the best premise because fun and enthusiasm are guaranteed. It is easy to investigate and a pleasure to create.
Created with Thodoris Georgakopoulos, this album tells a story starring characters that are cities and towns communicating through the wind and finds the right metaphor to get readers to think about growth, ageing, contradictions and the ambiguity between time, perception and existence.
In Little Papingo, using a restrained colour palette and a wide range of textures and materials, I materialised cities, towns, mountains and forests. I imagined moments in which I could privilege the manifestations of the wind as a way of representing it.
Created with Thodoris Georgakopoulos, this album tells a story starring characters that are cities and towns communicating through the wind and finds the right metaphor to get readers to think about growth, ageing, contradictions and the ambiguity between time, perception and existence.
In Little Papingo, using a restrained colour palette and a wide range of textures and materials, I materialised cities, towns, mountains and forests. I imagined moments in which I could privilege the manifestations of the wind as a way of representing it.
2025
Το Μικρό Πάπιγκο
Little Papingo
Published by
Kastaniotis
Text by
Thodoris Georgakopoulos
City
Athens
Awards
2026 Finalist
Bologna Chindren’s Book Fair
Illustrators Exhibition
That's how our world works, but it doesn't have to be that way, does it?
A child knocks on the doors of the building where he lives, seeking to discover more about his neighbours and establish communication. They all seem very different to him, with their idiosyncrasies, habits and peculiarities. The houses where they live, the objects they use and the phrases they choose to share tell stories that the reader can learn about. But do each of these characters really want to be the way they are?
It was a great privilege to be able to work with a text by Afonso Cruz again. This time, I set out to expand the narrative with my images, adding materiality to the building's exterior and interior, to the city that surrounds it, to all the characters and to much of what we can see if we peek into their minds.
A child knocks on the doors of the building where he lives, seeking to discover more about his neighbours and establish communication. They all seem very different to him, with their idiosyncrasies, habits and peculiarities. The houses where they live, the objects they use and the phrases they choose to share tell stories that the reader can learn about. But do each of these characters really want to be the way they are?
It was a great privilege to be able to work with a text by Afonso Cruz again. This time, I set out to expand the narrative with my images, adding materiality to the building's exterior and interior, to the city that surrounds it, to all the characters and to much of what we can see if we peek into their minds.
2025
Assim, mas sem ser assim
Published by
Penguin Random House — Fábula
Text by
Afonso Cruz
City
Lisbon
This picturebook marked my first foray into writing. It is the story of a journey through the imagination of a man who is trying to understand the nature that surrounds him and his own inner self. When he encounters a transparent, metamorphic and strangely beautiful being, he feels disturbed by the difference and returns to his shelter-laboratory to grow old protected from this being. Later, in a reunion, he allows himself to be seen and a sincere friendship begins.
I made this book to understand what friendship is and the complexity of human relationships. The transparent character is fiction that allows us to better
understand reality.
I made this book to understand what friendship is and the complexity of human relationships. The transparent character is fiction that allows us to better
understand reality.