Inside the notebook: Mariana A Miserável

First things first. We will start unveiling page after page of your creative process. How does that make you feel?

Excited! I rarely have the opportunity to open my old notebooks and it’s a very nice experience to go through all their pages. I have been enjoying seeing my old lists, the troubles that were upsetting me at the time because besides drawings I also have all these thoughts! Usually, I only share very small pieces of my notebooks in a very controlled way, and now I am totally opening them without any curation on my part. This feels scary too.

Paper, notebooks and everything stationery. We heard you are in a deep relationship with all of them. How do you think that grew into a full-fledged passion?

I am in a deep relationship with all of them. It’s my most bought item! Before I didn’t give much importance to them, actually, there’s a funny story on this. Before moving to this house I had collected thousands of single paper sheets with drawings and when I moved out, I decided to let them go and put them on the paper recycling bin. On the next day, there was a fair of old things and vintage items and I was inundated with messages saying someone was selling my drawings, horrified with that. On the contrary, I was so happy someone found my work as good as pulling it out of the garbage and selling it the next day! How great is that? Back a few years ago, I started to always have a notebook beside me, and when I don’t have it I feel unprotected. Sometimes I walk out without one and I immediately feel the urge to walk by a stationery shop and buy a cheap one. I need paper in my life!

Which are the tools you tend to gravitate towards when using your notebook?

Pencil, mostly mechanical pencils. I also sporadically use colour, but the pencil is really my preferred choice. The materials I use vary accordingly to the work that’s being developed. If I’m working on a drawing for a digital purpose, I usually make it directly on the iPad. On the other hand, if I’m working on a set of drawings for an exhibition or a client, I usually use acrylic paint and graphite on 300 gsm paper.

Do you tend to write, or draw more?

Write! My drawings usually start with words on a certain subject. I make a list of words and I organize my thoughts in them. Then I transform them in small drawings that almost only I can understand and afterwards I develop a bigger draft for clients. It’s a very strange thing coming from an illustrator but it is my true and honest process.

The paper you use reveals a lot of who you are. Are you a ruled, dotted or plain kind of person?

Lined paper is my favourite. There’s something great in a page that’s not entirely blank, as you don’t feel such an heavy pressure on your shoulders to draw something perfectly. The lines give me a sense of freedom contrary to wanting to draw something beautiful, pages become less intimidating all of a sudden. Final drawings are on blank pages, but lined pages are my favourite for drawing without thinking!

At what stage of your creative process do you tend to grab your notebook more than any other tool?

At the beginning but not only when I am amidst a creative process. I grab a notebook several times a day without necessarily a reason for it. 

Do you usually share your notebook with others, or is it something highly classified?

It is secretive. Sometimes I write things down that don’t make sense to showcase. It’s interesting to know the behind the scenes but it’s also a very personal object.

If I decide to make a doodle in the middle of that page right now, will you let me or would I upset you?

It’s so cool! I have notebooks around the flat with my friend's notes on them too. When I and Maria Imaginário were developing an exhibition we usually went to a cafe to talk and think about it and we would write down lists on the same notebooks.

And lastly, we believe paper has a bright future ahead, regardless of what paper-haters may say. What’s your opinion on the future of paper?

For me, that’s not even a discussion because I can’t imagine my life without paper. I can’t read without a proper book in my hands if it’s a digital piece of reading I really have print it, and there’s a lot of cases like these. I do my part in recycling and keeping waste to the minimum, but my process is very attached to print. Actually, I do very small drawings because I am conscious of the paper waste and prefer to keep my drawings small and manageable. I do a lot of stuff in paper and think will hardly change that.