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(a) Etienne’s passion for children’s literature brought him to the U.S. for the
first time in 1965. “During that era, very few good children’s books were being
published abroad,” he recalls.
You’ve never heard of Yok-Yok? (b) The red-hatted
tree spirit, below right, is an icon throughout Europe and Asia.
Etienne created
the character for 10-second TV station breaks during
his former life as an
animator in Switzerland. While Yok-Yok mania
still reigns abroad, here in the states, Etienne is better
known for
his books, of course, as well as illustrations in popular journals. No
one would ever guess that the world-famous Yok-Yok’s creator lives
quietly with
his wife, fellow artist Rita Marshall, and son, Adrien, in
sleepy Lakeville,
Connecticut.
(c) The English nursery rhyme “Who Killed Cock Robin?” gets a fresh
interpretation through Etienne’s avant-garde illustrations. (d)Watercolors at work. (e) Scene from Story Number 1, his 1968
collaboration with dramatist Eugene Ionesco.(f) Etienne works in the attic studio of his Victorian home. The hulking
portrait on the easel is from a series of personal paintings of actual birds of
prey morphed into people. “I like to pick a theme and explore it in all possible
ways.” (g) Artists and photographers have often made Etienne their subject. (h) Scene from A Long Long Song, a surreal fantasy based on a nursery
rhyme. (i) “The disorder of my pencils does not bother me.”
Vision Quest page
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artist's studio archive »
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