LETIZIA IANNACCONE | INTERVIEW | unprogetto - progettazione e arredamento di interni

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Letizia Iannaccone Interview

Letizia Iannaccone is a woman who illustrates women, at least that’s how I see her. Her illustrations are pure femininity: that kind of femininity that catches you off-guard, sweet and delicate, with no impositions, the femininity that’s innate to every little girl.
No coquettes, no unrequested beauty, only childlike femininity, only gentleness.
I met Letizia Iannaccone in December in Turin, and I asked her a few questions.

Interview of Letizia Iannaccone, illustrator

What’s the connection between your life and your illustrations?

It depends. Sometimes there isn’t a connection, other times if I hadn’t a connection I’d find myself with a pile of blank sheets and nothing more. When it comes to specific commissions (maybe a bit forced, as well) I need to jump out of myself to do my job. Other times, and fortunately it’s most of the times, I can let my hair down and my life inevitably ends up on the paper. There isn’t a specific connection, sometimes I simply have fun and put a detail or apparently casual references in my work, other times when I’m done I see that I used some part of me without even realizing it…

What’s more important to you: graphics or content?

I’d say that they’re equally important. If one or the other is missing, I rarely find that illustration satisfying. I think that they should always go hand in hand, so that the resulting images can spark emotions in you. If you deprive beauty of meaning (or, as in our case, if you deprive the illustration of a narrative), you’re doing something I’m not interested in. Likewise, if you have a great idea but you lack the tools to express it… it’s as if you’d never had it.

Inspiration

Where does the inspiration behind your illustrations come from?

[su_quote cite=”I like looking at things and remember them when I close my eyes.”][/su_quote]

I’d say from the people I meet and the relationships I establish with them, from movies, from all the objects that tell stories and from books. I don’t love drawing en plein air, and I wouldn’t take on a travelogue or a city view, indeed I don’t find my inspiration when I’m out and about, at least not directly. I like looking at things and remember them when I close my eyes.

Describe your illustrations as if you were describing them to someone who can’t see them.

Mmmh… there’s a room, a girl, but also a cat peeking. The walls are covered in flowers, the floor is made of wood, and there’s something soft in the air. A shadow is creeping in from under the door. Do you know who that might be? You can only see a hand on the door handle; it will forever remain where it is if you don’t let it in.

Something about your house

Can you describe your favourite spot in your house?

Without a doubt, it’s in my studio. I have an armchair I’m very proud of, it’s vintage, a funny mix between a bergere and a product from the 60s. It’s next to the bookcase, and above it is a spotlight that makes it my favourite place to read. I don’t always sit there, sometimes I just stand and watch it.

I imagine that in your house you have at least one type of wallpaper: what does it look like?

Oddly enough, no, I don’t have any types of wallpaper in my house. I’m too mercurial, and as much as I love tapestry, I need white walls to feel free to move and revolutionize my rooms whenever I want. In any case, one day I’d like to have such a room, but I think that it would take me ages to be sure about the design… or maybe I should draw it myself.

The house of your dreams

Can you describe the house of your dreams?

Let me first say that I’m a bit of a megalomaniac.

The house of my dreams in reality would be two different houses: one to share, and one where I could live as a hermit.

The first house would definitely be big and in the city: high ceilings, wood flooring (Hungarian point), a big bathroom (the main one, with light colours) with a bathtub in the centre, a smaller bathroom with a shower (we could call it a guest bathroom), with a ground-drain so that the entire room could serve as a shower stall.

Preferably no hallways, lots of light, a huge kitchen, a good pantry, a skylight in the study (with two entrances!) and of course a bedroom and a living room, if possible… but I have to admit these are rooms that I find less interesting… I could go on adding a small library, a terrace, a walk-in closet, brass handles, marble baseboards, wooden shutters (no internal shutters, no curtains), a backyard pool and a nice doorman, an early XX century elevator with a velvet couch… which, I know, breaks down once a week, but who cares?

As for the second house, to me it would be sufficient that it had no signal, a veranda and the ocean.