Today I'm pleased to share my interview with Andrea D'Aquino, illustrator of Silence Sounds Simple: A Day in the Life of John Cage, written by Gary Golio. An interview with Andrea has been a long time coming, and it's such a pleasure that we got a chance to catch up about this book in particular. Enjoy learning more!
About the book:
John Cage is a man who makes music with screws and bolts or with rubber bands. He’ll play a toy piano onstage in his suit. Why? To make people listen. To make them think.
As John goes through an ordinary day, he finds that it’s full of wonder and full of music. John hears the seeds of music in everything from slippers scuffing on an old wooden floor and water whooshing from a faucet to beeping horns and screeching brakes outside. He even hears music in the silence of the forest as he harvests mushrooms.
Peek underneath the dust jacket:
Let's talk Andrea D'Aquino!
LTPB: How did you become the illustrator of Silence Sounds Simple: A Day in the Life of John Cage? What were the first images that popped into your mind when you saw Gary Golio’s text?
AD: I think I was asked to illustrate this book because my approach can be experimental and playful, qualities that can also describe Cage’s philosophy and work. I’ve also done a couple of other biographies (The most popular is A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa), so I have experience with the genre.
When I read the unusual and poetic text, I knew this was a project for me. It’s not a linear narrative, and it’s not written in a typical biography structure. The manuscript, with it’s quirky word spacing and total lack of punctuation, plainly signaled that I’d also be free to visually explore the inventive spirit of Cage himself. I don’t recall that any specific images came to mind. It was more that my canvas was completely wide open, a true blank slate. That’s quite rare and thrilling.
LTPB: What is the first thing you do when you receive a new project? How do you make a conscious effort to tailor your illustration style to each new manuscript? Did you have a clear vision for the illustrations when you saw the text?
AD: I spent an unusually long trial and error period in developing my approach for this book. How would I visually capture a concept as abstract as sound? What does silence look like? How would I convey the spirit of this idiosyncratic, avant garde artist?
I tested a wide array of approaches, in virtually every medium imaginable. I start by making a mess in a childlike way, trying to find what ultimately felt the most true. But this is my process with almost any book. I allow the subject to lead me to the approach. My aim is always to capture a feeling, an emotion, a truth that may go deeper than an illustration that just depicts a subject literally. Many images that are technically “good” can bore me, feel too academic and detached. I’m always reaching for a step beyond that, and that means having the courage to fail terribly until something starts to make take shape. It’s mainly a gut feeling, more than a cerebral one.
LTPB: What did you find most difficult in creating this book? What did you find most rewarding?
AD: The best thing about it - the manuscript’s wide open space for interpretation was sometimes the most difficult. Each spread is written almost as it’s own universe, as disconnected scenes. Those vast leaps in setting from page to page were a great challenge.
To give it a framework, my solution was to base my design on a grid. It also symbolizes the underlying structure inherent in Cage’s work. What may seem like chaos on the surface, in fact has a careful set of rules that governs the apparent randomness. My page design, the typography placement (both hand-drawn and set) and my illustration are one and the same, they can’t be separated, most particularly in this book
LTPB: What did you use to create the illustrations in this book? Is this your preferred medium? How does your process change from book to book?
AD: I jump right into final art, to retain the spontaneity and unusual textures that are key to my process. There were no “sketches” for this book in the traditional sense. At least not ones I presented to the team before I started. There were only loose penciled plans I do for myself, that are more a thought process, never tight drawings. I don’t want to ‘recreate’ a visual. That inevitably makes things feel a bit lifeless.
However - by no means does this mean that any art I made was set in stone. If I didn’t like it, I’d do it over, many times, or even completely change my approach. I let my editor and team know I was working this way, and assured them that if there were any comments, I’m always collaborative, a change would be made. In the end, there were no significant comments at all, so my work indeed stood exactly as I presented it.
Instinctively, I used lots of “non-art materials” to create the marks and textures. I taped 5 paintbrushes together to use as one. Toothbrushes, Q-Tips, wax paper, string, painting on ceramic tiles, weird monoprint techniques - I often had no idea what the result would be. It was all a test. I made some marks dozens of times. If it worked, it was “final art”. If not - it got discarded.
I do scan all my hand-made elements digitally, keeping some parts separate, so I’m free to shift and move things, even re-size. Maybe tweak color for consistency. I don’t create any of the marks in photoshop, it’s all analog - but it’s also vital to me to retain flexibility in size and position when necessary.
LTPB: What are you working on now? Anything you can show us?
AD: I’m working on something that’s much more personal, a book I’ve written and illustrated. It’s a narrative story set in the natural world, the main character is an animal. It’s a book I’ve worked on for a few years. I’m extremely proud of it, it’s been a long and educational journey for me. I’m delighted to say that it will be out in 2028, with a dream publisher, and a dream editor. While much of my work is actually done, it’s far too premature to reveal details.
LTPB: If you got the chance to write your own picture book autobiography, who (dead or alive!) would you want to illustrate it, and why?
AD: Ludwig Bemelmans. I have too many favorite artist to truly choose one, but this has a ring of truth for for me. The Madeline series was a favorite as a child. They capture something that is at once charmingly vintage, simple child-like, yet sophisticated. The sensibility is very New York, a bit foreign, specifically European, all aspects of my surroundings and the people close to me as a child. They also feel quite alive and spontaneous, artful. I love that!
Thank you to Andrea for giving us all some insight into her process! Silence Sounds Simple: A Day in the Life of John Cage published last week from Calkins Creek.
Special thanks to Andrea and Calkins Creek for use of these images!
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