Inspiring Illustrator Lilli Carré

Illustrator, animator and graphic novelist (and fellow Chicagoan!) Lilli Carré has been inspiring me for years. Can you see why?

Book cover illustration for the new edition of  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published by Penguin Classics

Poster/logo design for the 16th Chicago Underground Film Festival

Poster illustration for the This American Life 2007 Tour

Illustration of a Tikbalang for the book Beasts! 2, published by Fantagraphics Books

 Contribution to the Exquisite Book, published by Chronicle Books.

This past January Lilli took part in New Chicago Comics, an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, showing some of her comics pages, drawings, and animation work.  

I also came across an interview with Lilli on Pikaland that’s worth reading. I found her response to the following question insightful and refreshing.  

How did you first learn to access your creative and artistic talents, and gain the confidence to make art your career? A lot of people struggle with knowing that they’re ‘good enough’ to do that.

“I don’t look at it as a high-pressure thing. I just make the work I want to make, and if there’s a venue out there where I can share it then I’ll go for it. I still work a part-time job at a bookstore and make the work that I get excited about making, I’m not lunging at making a big career for myself. I need the outlet of making the work and drawings and stories, otherwise I’d feel very expressionless and ready to explode. So it doesn’t seem like some big choice or anything about confidence, it’s just a thing I have to do for myself, and if I have the opportunity to share it then that’s an added excitement.”

You can read the rest of this intereview here.

Lilli’s work is fantastic! There’s more to see on her blog Kettle of Fish and on her website. Go check it out!