Kamee Abrahamian

Tell us something interesting about yourself:
Sometimes I want to quit everything and become a rug-maker :)

Current job title:
Interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, curator, educator, community organizer, caregiver, and witch.

How would you describe your identity?
Queer, feminist, SWANA.

Tell us your favourite medium for reading:
Actual books!

Tell us your favourite location for reading:
In bed under my weighted blanket!!!

Book title:
The Brighter I Shine.

What inspired your creative process in writing or illustrating your book?
I originally wrote it as a poem, to inspire parents to talk to their kids about their child’s ancestry.

Favourite character or moment from the book – and why?
Anything by William Saroyan — when Mourad wakes up Aram in The Summer of a Beautiful White Horse — in the short story collection My Name is Aram.

What themes or messages does your book raise?
It’s important to talk to our kids about our ancestral stories, so we know where we come from and what had to happen for us to get here!

How would you describe your artistic or writing style in three words?
I’m actually unsure. Maybe poetic, visionary, intimate?

What aspect of the story did you most connect with, and how did it shape your illustrations?
The ancestral and cultural textures, I think! I didn’t illustrate.

Materials and techniques used for this book’s illustrations:
N/A.

Favourite illustration – and why?
The image of the child and their mother sitting in the field of wildflowers. It’s pretty much where I want to be at all times, and I know my own child feels the same way. We both come alive in the mountains.