Flowers for Amaia Arrazola: Gràcia pays tribute to the illustrator in front of her mural at Abacería Central

BarcelonaThere are people who leave their mark on the neighborhoods they visit. One of them is Amaia Arrazola. The illustrator, who passed away this Thursday at the age of 41, received a heartfelt tribute this Friday from friends and neighbors, who covered with flowers the mural with which the author of Totoro and I He gave soul and color to the works at the Abaceria Central market in Vila de Gràcia. This afternoon, dozens of people came to pay tribute to him at one of his last works.

That mural with which Arrazola beautified the 86 meters of what had previously been a nondescript fence was transformed this Friday into a small shrine in memory of the artist. Countless flowers and messages covered the drawings, which are full of references to the market's seasonal products, as well as to the life and culture of Gràcia. The mural quickly won the hearts of the locals, especially the children who came to see the Tió de Nadal (Christmas Log), the horses and sweets of Sant Medir, and the devils.

Arrazola was one of the most outstanding illustrators of her generation, known for books such as the tribute to the universe of Hayao Miyazaki, Totoro and I (Lunwerg, 2022), and the first-person account of the impact of motherhood, The meteorite (Lunwerg, 2020), as well as for the murals she painted in Japan, Madrid, Timisoara, Rabat, and Barcelona.

Arrazola, who was born in Vitoria in 1984, 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. She put down roots in the Catalan capital.

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 some Nike shoes.