Joanne Ehrich

Klassic Koalas Joanne Ehrich

Artist Querida DiGiovanni comes from a family of artists: her grandfather was a sculptor, her grandmother once his model. Querida finds her grandmother's old photo album, populated with images of the things she had loved most in life: her sculptor husband, the ocean, and the koala, captured in a series of photographs. Querida, whose name means "beloved" in Spanish, is inspired by the sweet faces of these kindly creatures to turn the treasure into a sketchbook about love, enhanced with quotations, and with letters once written by her British-descent admirer, Englishman Rowan Blair, who always signed his correspondences "RB." The letters detail his many travels abroad, with the desire to reconnect with his dearest. Worn parchment pages come to life with quotations and captions, didactic sketches containing hidden messages throughout, and the many faces of romance and life itself. The content spans six generations, beginning with daguerreotypes of her great-great-grandparents and concluding with sketches of friends; the overriding message is that love is eternal, transcending gender, race, even the earthly plane and time. Denis Sweeney, San Jose: "Klassic Koalas: The Book of Valentines and Other Loves captivated me in a similar way the Griffin and Sabine letters books did. As a guy, this feels a bit like reading through a girl's diary, except this time you know it isn't forbidden... ." Hue Tran, Castro Valley: "A fascinating collection of drawings, quotes and photographs inspired by love and imagination, Klassic Koalas: The Book of Valentines and Other Loves is a jewel... As each composition unfolds, it tells a story, pulls me in, makes me think, and fills my mind with wonders... ."