top of page

KACHINA

Book illustrated with sculptures I made during my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture at RUFA Rome University of Fine Arts, 2015

During my first year at RUFA Rome University of Fine Arts, I already knew I wanted to focus on stop-motion animation.

At first "Kachina" was born as a stop-motion short film. Considering that I was completely self-taught in this animation technique, I soon came to realise it was a very ambitious project for that time in my life. Perhaps, too ambitious. So I decided to rescale it and write a book instead, that I would then proceed to illustrate.

I built a set (a forest) with several props (fire, water, rocks, seeds), a puppet (Kachina) and a sculpture of a woman in white (death). Then posed and photographed these elements to illustrate the story I wrote.

​

"Kachina" is the story of a little girl born from the moon rays. Guided by her mother, the moon, she will go on a dangerous adventure, challenging the four elements (fire, water, wind, earth) to collect four seeds. At the end of the book Kachina will meet with death itself. This gracious and motherly figure will reveal to Kachina the meaning of the four seeds and the challenges she went through: the elements and seeds represent the four stages of life: birth, youth, maturity, death. And Kachina is the most important element: the essence. Death helps Kachina to rejoin with earth, and that's where a beautiful tree will be born. Finally, it is dawn.

​

You can view the full book at the end of the page, but unfortunately only the Italian version is available for now.

!
Widget Didn’t Load
Check your internet and refresh this page.
If that doesn’t work, contact us.
bottom of page