European Publisher Selects UC Clermont Professor s Painting for Book Cover

No one could blame Adjunct Assistant Professor Jill Fankhauser for being skeptical when she was asked by a publisher via e-mail about using one of her online paintings for a book cover.

The November 2005 email was from Laura Volpe, Subdirector for the Parténope publishing house that edits southern Italian works in Spain and translator of the book from the original Italian into Spanish.

“In the email she asked to use my painting for the cover of a book. She said that they were a small company, that they could offer 250 euros for the use of the painting, and would ‘need [my] number of account’ in order to deposit the payment. I suspected fraud and so did David (her husband), but I gave my permission to use the painting while withholding the account number,” said Fankhauser.

The painting is a watercolor of a view of Napoli from Mergellina. According to Fankhauser there are countless photographs and postcards from this famous vantage point and, although she visited in 1990-1991, she used a photographic image as her inspiration.

“It was a birthday gift to Janet Stein Carter, a biology faculty member at UC Clermont College.” Before giving the gift, Jill’s husband took a digital picture of it and posted it, with many other photos of my paintings on his website, she said. (Google Jill Fankhauser)

Fankhauser received no further word until January 19, 2006 when the graphic designer wrote to apologize for the delay, to affirm that the book was in the stores, and to assure me that my copies of the book and payment would be arriving soon. “He also sent a jpg (a common image compression mechanism) of the cover, which I did not open, and so maintained my somewhat skeptical attitude,” she said.

Fankhauser’s skepticism was allayed when the postman walked up to her house with a package on February 15. Inside were five copies of Maria Orsini Natale’s novel Francesca y Nunziata: Las Señoras de la Pasta and the check for 250 euros as promised.

Fankhauser’s painting graces the cover of the novel set in the period 1848-1940 - the story of how a family of pasta-makers moved from the Amalfi Coast to the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius and established a modern industry.

For more information contact Mae Hanna, Director of College Relations at 513-732-5332