We present our first coloring book: “The Superpowers of Art by Brianda Fitz-James Stuart”. It is the ideal complement to the illustrated book “The Superpowers of Art”, published by Mosquito Books in collaboration with Plom Gallery.
The coloring book “The Superpowers of Art by Brianda Fitz-James Stuart” includes unpublished illustrations by Brianda, which do not appear in the Mosquito Books book. For example, various very recognizable elements from works by Warhol, Magritte, Dalí, Miró and Picasso. Also, reinterpretations of Vermeer ‘s “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” and Ingres ‘ “The Great Odalisque” . And a spectacular print combining pictorial figures from six different centuries. 
We took the opportunity of the publication of our brand new
Coloring Book to have a good time chatting with
Pedro Calleja, author of the text of
“The Superpowers of Art. A messy history”, the book illustrated by Brianda Fitz-James Stuart and published by Mosquito Books in collaboration with Plom Gallery.
Brianda, an artist of the 21st century
PLOM: What is “The Superpowers of Art”? PEDRO: A walk through the History of Art.
A journey through time.
The journey covers 6 centuries, from the 15th to the 20th century.
It is not an orderly, linear journey, but we jump from one century to another, from one year to another.
During the trip, we make 12 stops and present 12 famous painters and their most famous works.
At each stop, we tell a fictional story more or less inspired by real events. PLOM: How did you get involved in the project? PEDRO: One fine afternoon, Martha Zimmermann, from Plom Gallery, with whom I have been friends for almost two decades now, introduced me to Lluís Cassany and Mia Cassany, the people in charge of the publishing company Mosquito Books. They explained to me that they wanted to publish a book titled “Historia desordenada del Arte”. A very visual book.
They already had the illustrations by Brianda Fitz James Stuart. They needed a text to complement those images and help the reader understand the whole proposal. PLOM: What motivated you to accept the challenge of writing it? PEDRO: First, Brianda’s illustrations: naïve and cheeky at the same time.
With an avant-garde ‘I-don’t-know-what’ from the beginning of the last century.
Halfway between fabric printing, illustration for children’s stories and graphic design for fashion magazines.
Second, the title they had planned to give to the book: “Historia desordenada del Arte” (Messy History of Art). Suggestive.
Breaking.
The light bulb in my brain went on as soon as I heard it. 
A Messy History of Magic
PLOM: In the end, why did you decide to write a fiction story with fantastic elements? PEDRO: I felt a tremendous desire to tell and explain many things: what personality each artist had, how was the environment in which they created their works, what kind of sensations they provoked with their art, how art transforms us and transforms the world we live in, against what or against whom artists have to fight in order to continue being artists.
I was also interested in the concept of ‘disorder’ as an ‘unpredictable generator’ of ‘cultural passions’. PLOM: The concept of… ‘What?’ PEDRO: (laughs) Let’s see, think of something you are passionate about.
For example, contemporary art, pop music, late 19th century French literature… Whatever!
Well, as a general rule, human beings discover that we are passionate about something by pure chance.
One day, BAM! a flash of lightning occurs.
“Wow, this moves me!” -we say to ourselves- “I want more!!!”.
In this way, intuitively, we start a path that leads us to discover more things that move us in the same artistic field.
But we do not discover them in an orderly way, but in a disorderly way.
From Van Gogh we go to Goya, from Goya to Picasso, from Picasso to African primitive art, from there to Warhol and street graffiti … “The Superpowers of Art” is a book that jumps through time, that forces the reader to go from a Renaissance artist to a Post-Impressionist artist.
It is a suggestive disorder that awakens the imagination.
Artists really are Superheroes
PLOM: Isn’t it a bit childish to transform established artists like Da Vinci or Van Gogh into superheroes with superpowers facing two archenemies who want to destroy everything? PEDRO: Art changes things, transforms them, turns them into something different.
It is not a scientific process.
It is magic.
It’s superpowers in action. Leonardo Da Vinci was really a genius of science and the arts. Edvard Munch showed in his paintings our inner selves, the raw emotions, the psychological traumas.
He read our minds. Frida Kahlo was scary how brutally sincere she was painting her self-portraits.
Everything about her was and remains pure truth.
You can’t lie after seeing her work.
Van Gogh’ s paintings show us what the ‘real’ world is like: a world in constant change, alive, dizzying, vibrant. Velázquez painted himself painting “Las Meninas” and looking at the people looking at the painting.
And if you look closely, those people looking at the painting (which are ourselves disguised as King and Queen of Spain) are reflected in the mirror painted at the bottom of the painting.
It is a genuine optical and baroque trap. Velázquez had the superpower to lock us into his paintings.
I am not making anything up.
All the artists in the book act as the real ones would have acted. 
Against Censorship and Oblivion, Laughter and Creativity
PLOM: The ‘bad guys’ in the book are Lord Omega and Madame Nada. PEDRO: At first, I imagined them as signs without a name.
Omega was “Ω”, the last letter of the Greek alphabet.
Nada was “∅”, the mathematical symbol for Empty Set.
It was weird, the editors weren’t sold on the idea, so I named them.
Omega is black.
Nada is white.
They represent, respectively, Censorship and Oblivion.
What is crossed out and what is erased.
I thought that the greatest enemies of Art are, without a doubt, censorship and oblivion.
In the book they are described as the typical cartoon bad guys who always end up beaten by circumstances. PLOM: Would you say that “The Superpowers of Art” is a funny book? PEDRO: Without a doubt.
It is written with the desire to amuse.
And also with the desire to ignite imaginative little engines.
No strange words are used.
There are many moments of action.
Battles.
Onomatopoeias.
But the little biographical details scattered throughout the text are authentic.
The book is composed of an introduction explaining the premise and introducing the pair of villains.
This introduction is followed by 12 short stories.
One per artist.
Each story is set in a different century and complements the full-page illustrations by Brianda, who is actually artist number 13.
The book is meant to be devoured with the eyes.
I am the one who makes sure that the reader lacks nothing.
That he/she feels at ease in the midst of so much clutter. 
Educational gift, Coloring book
PLOM: In your opinion, should children’s books always be educational? PEDRO: ‘Good’ children’s books are ‘always’ educational, in one way or another.
The ‘good, good, really good’ ones are the ones that ‘don’t seem’ educational at all. “Peter Pan”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “A Little Lost”. The book that Brianda and I have made is ‘tremendously educational’, but only if you make an effort to make it so: if you read all the information in the cards, if you pay attention to the geographical and chronological details inserted in the stories, if you relate Brianda’s illustrations with the superpowers of each artist… You learn lots of things!
On the other hand, if you read it without frowning and with a smile on your face, paying attention only to the punch lines and the sparkling sentences, maybe it won’t help you to pass Art History exams, but it will certainly improve your character.
So, yes, it is surely a book with educational superpowers, in the broadest and most ‘supercalifragilisticoespialidoso’ sense of the term. PLOM: Did you also write the coloring book texts ? PEDRO: They are very short sentences to encourage children to color Masterpieces such as Botticelli ‘s “The Birth of Venus” or Da Vinci’ s “Mona Lisa” . In this Coloring Book we have included Brianda’s illustrations that do not appear in “The Superpowers of Art”. Things by Magritte, Warhol, Picasso, Miró, Dalí… It is a limited edition for collectors.
In a few years it will be worth a a lot of money.
(laughs)
