Francesca Grech - Frannie Gee Illustration | Edinburgh College of Art Graduate Show 2022

Bio

Francesca is an Edinburgh-based Maltese illustrator. Her work explores ways of blending everyday life’s mundanity with the surreal, through emotional and whimsical subject matter. She specialises in the development of characters and stories for publishing and editorial, with a focus on inclusivity and mental health awareness in storytelling. She often looks to combine her illustrative work with material such as textiles and paper cutting as an additional layer for her storytelling.

When the Moon Disappears - Picture Book

The body of work Francesca created during the MA, consists of a series of projects exploring the themes of mental health, emotion and childhood memories through picture book illustrations, artist books and mixed media illustration, done in paper and textiles. Her main project, When the Moon Disappears, is a picture book that explores overcoming childhood trauma and grief through story and illustrated characters:

When the Moon Disappears is a visual journey of self-healing and overcoming childhood trauma. It tells the story of a young girl named Yara, who is haunted by her grief. When it feels like her sadness has overcome her and her guiding moonlight has disappeared, Yara discovers that the darkness holds more than just her fear and trauma and that she is, in fact, not alone. Laden with memories and emotions, will she be able to outrun It or is It the key to re-igniting the light?

Below is a small selection of the illustrated spreads from the book.

Moon Artist Book

As part of her research for When the Moon Disappears, Francesca experimented with combining different material and media to create an artist book based on the moon phases. This book combines embroidery and stitching, painting and cutout techniques. The intention is to continue developing the final product of the storybook, When the Moon Disappears, to include interactive elements within it.