On Creativity, Collaboration and Dreams

When I was a child my two sisters and I were always writing, illustrating our stories, putting on plays or dreaming up some other creative project.  We (mostly) worked very well together.

One spring afternoon we sat at the kitchen table discussing our latest project (this time a science fiction novel called The Blue Sun).  My mother, who was in an adjoining room, couldn’t resist quickly writing down our bursts of ‘brilliant’ inspiration.  I wish she had done so more often.  Her account is hilarious—and we have a record of our collaborative style.  And in just a few telling words she captured the personalities of our 7, 9 and 15-year-old selves.

My mother was a fashion artist and painter.  She also made wonderful stuffed animals, including a 1” tall teddy bear. I became a ‘designer’ at 7 when I drew a picture of mouse and asked her to make me a stuffed version. She re-created it exactly, down to its over-long eyelashes.  My family includes artists in many fields, and we have talked of having a ‘compound’ of houses where we could live close by and work together and inspire one another. Or have a shared studio (in a barn, perhaps?)—our own Omega Workshop or Bloomsbury Group!

These thoughts have all returned—and inspired these three blog posts—after seeing again the wonderful John Frame exhibit at the Huntington – alas, now closed.  A brilliant and visionary wood sculptor (his work is indescribable—check out his website).  Though he is the creator of his amazing pieces, he has been aided by his family’s many talents—photography, filmmaking, sewing skills—which played a part in his exhibit and his artistic projects.  Frame also curated a show at the Huntington on William Blake; in the exhibit notes he wrote of the artistic assistance of Blake's wife in his work.

My sister and I are planning to write a mystery together. We often exchange wild and fanciful project ideas-- some of which might actually be do-able!  She has been an invaluable critic, editor and technical advisor for my writing/illustrating work—and my blogging!  All three of us still want to collaborate--maybe one day we will yet have our ‘barn’!

The World of John Frame and his Fragments of Tales

Where do ideas come from? In the case of John Frame they can come in dreams. Four years ago he woke abruptly and in the half-dreamlike state between sleep and waking he found the characters, scenes and story of an elaborate project forming in his head. Three Fragments of a Lost Tale, an exhibition of five years of work on his dream creations—sculptures, photographs and a stop motion film he has begun—is now at the Huntington Library in San Marino through June 20, 2011.







I have long admired the work of Brian Selznick, especially the books in which he seems to express a fascination with automata (which I also find intriguing). The Invention of Hugo Cabret and The Robot King both include characters created with bits of found objects (as in The Robot King—glass, pebbles, marbles and keys with a music box hidden away in his chest for a heart. Selznick has written that Hugo Cabret was inspired by an automaton in a museum collection, damaged by fire, which upon being refurbished could draw four different pictures and write three different poems as well as sign the name of its maker.




I believe John Frame’s imagination has surpassed even the brilliant Brian Selznick, though they both have created magic. A truly Renaissance man, Frame has created a world apart with a cast of characters (some fully articulated) from wood, metal, found objects and aged and stitched bits of fabric. In the hands of a lesser artist the figures might have been grotesque or alarming. But instead they are poignant, sympathetic and even familiar beings. The unusual puppet-like figures are infused with so much artistry that what comes across is a deep sense of soulful humanity hiding behind their glass eyes. I want to know what will happen next in their wood, metal and cloth world.

Frame has said that his favorite quote is from John Ruskin:

“Fine art is that in which the hand, the head and the heart of man go together.”

Created by Frame’s hands, envisioned in his head, these figures speak to our hearts. They are so beautiful, it’s painful……