Illustrator Amaia Arrazola dies at age 41
She was the author of the books 'The Meteorite' and 'Totoro and I' and also designed large-format murals
BarcelonaIllustrator Amaia Arrazola has died at the age of 41 in Barcelona, the city where the Basque artist settled years ago and where she developed her professional career. Arrazola was one of the most prominent illustrators of her generation, known for books such as her tribute to the universe of Hayao Miyazaki. Totoro and I (Lunwerg, 2022) or the first-person testimony about the impact of motherhood The meteorite (Lunwerg, 2020), as well as for the murals she painted in Japan, Madrid, Timisoara, Rabat, and Barcelona, where she covered the 86 meters of the fence of the Abacería Market in the Gràcia neighborhood.
Born in Vitoria in 1984, Arrazola studied advertising at the Complutense University of Madrid, where she also worked as an art director at the marketing agency McCann Erickson before moving to Barcelona to study at the Elisava school and reinvent herself as an illustrator. “When I arrived in Barcelona, I thought I was just passing through, that it would be a few months, maybe a few years, and then I would move on,” she explained on her Instagram account. “But this city captivates you. So many wonderful things have happened to me here, some of my best friends are here, my daughter is Catalan…”
One of her first major commissions was to decorate the Madrid metro with a large mural, and shortly after, she unfurled a large canvas illustrated by her over Madrid’s Plaça d’Espanya, commissioned by a telephone company. In 2019, in her hometown, she illustrated one of the walls of the Los Astrónomos pelota court with a tribute to women. pelotarisAnd last year she illustrated the poster for the Vitoria festival, La Blanca, with a mosaic representing the diversity of participants in the event, which for her was "like coming home."
As an editorial illustrator, she collaborated on books such as Robot heart (Stendhal Books, 2014), written by Iñaki Oliver, Things you'll never forget about your Erasmus experience (Lunwerg, 2014), written by Raquel Piñeiro, In the courtyard (Elkar, 2015), written by Arrate Egaña, and the collective book The future is female (Nube de Tinta, 2008), written by Sara Cano. Arrazola also created designs for brands such as Coca-Cola, Vans, Uniqlo, and Nobel, and participated in the design of a pair of Nike sneakers.
His passion for Japan materialized in his first solo book, Wabi sabi (Lunwerg, 2018), which arose from her stay in Matsudo thanks to an artist residency. "I went with the intention of doing a drawing a day, of creating a visual diary that would encompass both the food, the city, and the character of the people, as well as my fears and insecurities," she explained. Two years later came The meteorite. From when I became a mother and everything blew to pieces., about her experience as a first-time mother. "The book was born from the need to shout: 'I'm still here' –2020 was explained on the ARA“I felt that my maternal personality was supplanting me in every other aspect of life. And I rebelled against this idea.” For Arrazola, motherhood was, as she explained in the book and in this interview in Creatures, a meteorite: "I was prepared to have a daughter but not to become a mother."