Carson Ellis's Blog, page 2

Mine and those of other creative folks on Design*Sponge today.

 

Wishing you lots of luck and happiness in 2013.

Perhaps you heard that Adam Lanza may have been autistic or you read the piece making the rounds by the mother of a violent, speculatively autistic, mentally ill son and your brain is beginning to connect autism with lack of empathy and violence. If so, I would beg you to read this short, insightful, piece by Emily Willingham. There is no tendency towards violent crime in autistic people. Sadly, they are more likely to be the victims of violent crimes. But not to commit them. The question of empathy as it relates to autism is a complicated one that I’m bad at explaining (and bad at understanding). Emily can explain it to you better than I, but the important thing to know is that it does not mean that people on the spectrum don’t empathize with others. Autistic people aren’t any more prone to violence than the rest of us, though they may be more prone to unhappiness because their world is full of extra challenges. It breaks my heart to think that this community that I love, which has been working so hard to be less misunderstood, might be seen in an ugly light because of one person’s heinous actions and the irresponsible media soundbites that wormed their way into our heads afterwards.  As the mom of an autistic kid, I take this really seriously.  So please read up and if you want to read more or have unanswered questions, I recommend consulting the folks of A Thinking Person’s Guide To Autism.  TPGA is a community of advocates, writer and scientists, both autistic and neurotypical, who can help steer you in the right direction.

I’m very happy to say that I’m currently exhibiting new paintings at Nationale in Portland.  I’m also happy to say that I’m sharing the space with Midori Hirose, whose work I love.  The name of our show is Mush, Mush, The Sloping Midnight Line.  “What in the hell,” you ask, “does that mean?”  The answer is: “I don’t know!”  I also can’t tell you much about what the work deals with conceptually.  I’m an illustrator and out of the habit of thinking about my art that way.  I can say that it has something to do with the way that Kristin Lavransdatter (an epic novel set in medieval Norway that I was reading for like a year), being pregnant and the inevitable introspection that goes along with that (I’m pregnant by the way), and being a night owl combined in my insomnia-addled brain.

If you’d like to read a more eloquent description written by someone else and find out pertinent info about the show, you can do so here.  We’re having an opening tomorrow from 6:00 – 8:00 and would love to see you if you’re in the neighborhood (811 E Burnside).  If you’re not, but you’d like to see the show online, you can email May at Nationale for a preview.  Thanks!

 

Under Wildwood comes out on September 25th!  In celebration, we’re pleased to announce another Wildwood-themed contest.  This one is a decorating contest, for bookstores only.  The skinny, from Colin:

We’re challenging booksellers of all stripe to engage their creative faculties and decorate their bookstores in a decidedly WILDWOOD way. The best and most imaginative redesign, judged by myself and Ms. Ellis, will be awarded an ORIGINAL PIECE OF ART drawn by the illustratrix, Carson Ellis, that will incorporate the name of your bookstore in a pretty banner. But that’s not all: runners up will receive nifty exclusive stuff, which is awfully cool.

Okay?  You can find out more about the contest here, on the Wildwood Blog.  May the best decorating fool/bookseller win!

Sincerely,

the illustratrix, Carson Ellis

A mysterious thing came in the mail last week:  a wooden crate with the words BLITHE HOLLOW CEMETERY burned across the top.  It wasn’t clear how to open it.  Colin got a hammer and pried off the top.  Inside we found a tiny shovel resting on a bed of moss.  Hank was creeped out.

Beneath the moss was some dirt.  We dug through it until we found a wooden coffin with an elaborate lid.

The lid had to be pried off with a hammer too.  Inside the coffin was a ZOMBIE…

and a bunch of tiny apothecary bottles wrapped in burlap.

The zombie was holding a little rolled up movie poster…

on the back of which was a long, sweet, hand-written letter explaining, among other things, that the bottles were actual props from the film.

By some strange magic, this thing came in the mail the day we were planning to see ParaNorman.  So we got this gross, wonderful gift and then went and saw the movie and I’m here to tell you IT WAS GREAT.  And I’m not even saying that because Laika sent us a zombie in the mail.

Laika, in case you don’t know, is the animation studio that brought you Coraline and ParaNorman and who, if all goes as planned, will eventually bring you a feature-length, stop motion adaptation of Wildwood.  In the age of digital animation, they opt to make stop motion films instead – painstakingly, beautifully, expensively, obsessively, illogically, lovingly.

What I saw during a visit to Laika headquarters one day:

a women sewing rivets the size of pinheads onto tiny jeans
a women building a miniscule armature for one of the puppets that looked and worked just like a human skeleton.
illustrations everywhere:  storyboards, character studies, ideas for interior sets, ideas for exterior sets
Lots of people whose jobs require them to wear jeweler’s glasses
a waist-high New England town
hand-drawn flyers in the windows of the stores of the waist-high New England town
a big 3-D printer in action
a man sculpting characters out of clay
a writer and director working on a script
The dark room and tiny forested graveyard where Laika animator and CEO Travis Knight had spent the past few weeks moving little zombies and photographing them, moving them and photographing them, moving them and photographing them…

All this to say that it’s a special place, brimming with brilliant artists from the CEO down to the person they hired yesterday.  And the fact that everything they do they do in the service of this insanely labor-intensive, antiquated mode of filmmaking just because they love it makes it all the better.  I’m so excited for them to adapt Wildwood, I can’t contain myself.  In the meantime, see ParaNorman, people!

It’s that time again.  I’m now accepting applications for the *FREE* drawing workshop that I teach for teens at the Portland Art Museum.  If you or someone you know is a self-motivated Portland area artist between the ages of 13 and 18, check it out.  It’s fun:  we draw, paint, critique, discuss, host visiting artists and end the workshop with a proper  group show at PAM.  This year the workshop will happen after school on Thursdays in the fall.  Students are required to apply as class size is very limited.  You can find the application and more info HERE.

I’m done illustrating Under Wildwood!  I’ve been working on it around the clock for months and now I’m done and it’s summer and I’m going outside.  Here’s the final illustration (it’s not the final illustration in the book, but it’s the last one I worked on.)

Corporal Donalbain in The Great Hall

this photo that Christine Taylor took of me for Revel In Portland.

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