Marisol Misenta, known as Isol, was born in Buenos Aires in 1972 and is one of the best-known figures in contemporary Argentine illustration and picture books. Her work sits at the meeting point of drawing, literature and author comics. She also had a musical career in pop and classical music, but her reputation rests mainly on her drawings and on the books she writes and illustrates.
She grew up in the Caballito neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, in a family closely tied to art and books: her mother sang baroque music and her father was a writer and painter. Before devoting herself fully to illustration she worked in advertising agencies, drew for print media and decorated furniture. She trained as a teacher at the Rogelio Yrurtia National School of Fine Arts and spent a few years on an arts degree at the University of Buenos Aires, which she left to work for the press and on children's books.
Her style is defined by line, with relaxed drawings and characters whose expressiveness owes much to comics. She is drawn to humour and the absurd, and her stories, both innocent and ironic, have been published in Mexico, Spain, France, Switzerland, Korea, the United States and Argentina. Her first book, Vida de perros (1997), followed an honourable mention in a competition run by Mexico's Fondo de Cultura Económica. Since then she has alternated books she both writes and illustrates with illustrations for texts by writers such as Graciela Montes, Jorge Luján and Paul Auster. Her book Petit, el monstruo inspired an animated children's series.
Her work has been recognised with awards including the Golden Apple at the Bratislava Illustration Biennale (2003), the ALIJA Prize for best integral book of 2004 for Piñatas, and a place among the finalists for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her legacy lies in Ibero-American children's illustration, where her blend of humour, poetry and author drawing has opened new ways of telling stories with pictures.