Employee of the Month: The Life of a Pizza Chef by Isobel Neviazsky

Published by O Panda Gordo

Isobel Neviazsky's ongoing drawing practice is often focused on thoroughly documenting the events of her everyday life and the things that surround her. EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH: the life of a pizza chef is a collection of diary drawings turned into a graphic novella reflecting on the artist's own experience of working in a local restaurant as a pizza chef.

The drawings in the book appear in the chronological order in which they were made. EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH: the life of a pizza chef portrays a seemingly joyful experience – the pleasure of making a good pizza, the physicality of working the dough, and the pride of delivering a good job as part of a team are enjoyable and fulfilling aspects of the artist's life as a pizza chef that are visible in her drawings again and again. However, there's a darker side to this story as Neviazsky has to deal with the strain of not being out at work as trans – she was undercover, being perceived, acknowledge, and interacted with like a man. The fact that she had to act as someone she is not for the most part of her week led to mental health struggles that eventually made her job unbearable.

This is a bittersweet autobiographical testimony and is Isobel Neviazsky's first attempt at comics, which ultimately turned into EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH: the life of a pizza chef, edited and designed by João Sobral.