Cybling

September, 1997

Lisa Snellings & Neil Gaiman
Collaborators

 Lisa Snellings & Neil Gaiman




LISA'S BIO


NEIL'S BIO


Lisa thinks things up and makes them appear in three dimensions. She is a sculptor and, whether she uses clay or paper or glass or metal, everything she makes is a part of herself. Her work is greatly influenced by music, from Hindemith to Tool, Chopin to Swans. Some of her sculptures are disturbing, some are sad, some funny. Each tells a story.

Snellings was voted Best Professional Artist by the 1996 World Science Fiction Convention, and received the 1997 Jack R. Gaughn award for Best Emerging Artist. Her work wins accolades and draws crowds everywhere it's shown.

Neil Gaiman has won a lot of awards for making stuff up and writing it down.

Some of the stuff he's written down is comics, and some of it is poetry and some of it is scripts and some of it is prose.

His books include the ten volumes of SANDMAN, the novel NEVERWHERE, the children's book THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH (painted by Dave McKean), and, with Terry Pratchett, GOOD OMENS.

Author Neil Gaiman has written seven short stories based on Lisa Snelling's sculptures. There are plans to write enough Lisa-inspired pieces to one day be able to jointly release the most disturbing coffee table book of the early 21st century.

Lisa says:Neil says:

Hi Neil,

We're talking about collaboration? or actually collaborating? We could do either. It's the thing I get asked most often---where ideas come from, how
thay happen. I was wondering about what you're working on at the moment.

I was also wondering whether you remembered a conversation we had a bit ago--I can't remember where we were at the time---but we were talking about going
backward in time to gather lost possessions from childhood---toys and such.

It's come to mind several times recently. It could be because of the pieces I'm working on now, which are very toy-like, or maybe the desert air---ideas seem to flow very freely out here.

Anyway, tell me.


Lisa
= Friday, September 12, 1997 at 10:27:17 (CDT)

 >>I was wondering about what you're working on at the moment.

Right now, I'm finishing STARDUST, and starting BABYLON 5, and NEVERWHERE THE MOVIE, and writing a weird narrative poem, and doing a signing tour of Holland and Belgium too.

>I was also wondering whether you remembered a conversation we had a bit ago--I can't remember where we were at the time---but we were talking about going backward in time to gather lost possessions from childhood---toys and such.

Yes, I do. It's the wondering where my old toys are that gets me: there's a brown horsehair horse, and a gelatinous red and silver rubber clown, and a toy James Bond Aston Martin (which used up its missiles on the first day, so I used matchsticks from then on), which I still wonder about.

However, I've managed to hang on to 90% of my books from back then, which means I've kept the most important part of my childhood. (My 7th birthday present was the complete Narnia series, and I lay on my bed and read the ones I hadn't read, and reread the ones I had for, in memory, a couple of days.)
Neil
= Friday, September 12, 1997 at 23:00:20 (CDT)

A gelatinous clown? I had (surprise) a Jack-in-the-box. For a long time he was jammed inside the box. I loved him anyway. My mother threw him out. Why? To me, he was still "good"---being stuck in the box was just the way he was. I wonder if I ever forgave her for that. I suppose I did. But I remember it, and realize that we as children have a unique sense of values---for a little while---longer if we're lucky.

I saw this again recently when my daughter, who is six, brought me three broken pieces of a cheap plastic ballerina that she'd saved from her birthday cake. She'd wrapped them carefully in a tissue and held them reverently out to me. It was very important to her that the figurine be repaired. Yet, on another day, she might leave an expensive electronic toy outside to be rained on while she investigates a grasshopper. It's not the expensive, complicated gadgets we carry with us to adulthood. It's the tiny broken ballerinas.

Lisa
= Tuesday, September 16, 1997 at 15:08:47 (CDT)

Regarding Collaboration: Do you begin with a peice of art and write? Write->Art, or discuss first?

I remember Neil looking at the pieces the first time we met. People always look, but I always notice when someone really looks. When they see past the physical object, past whatever pleases (or displeases) them visually, and they see what's happening underneath. Because something always is.

Neil saw the layers immediately. The better I get to know his work, and him, I understand why. Although we have different visions, we see many things through the same, process(?). It's a hard thing to explain, sort of like the concept of timbre. You have to hear/see it to understand it. I was thrilled to find someone who'd looked through some of the same doors I had. And at the same time, could really surprise me by seeing things---stories--I didn't see. He's very, very good at looking, at seeing.

Lisa
= Tuesday, September 23, 1997 at 12:51:02 (CDT)

With Lisa's pieces, I began with the art, because they were, or seemed like, little frozen stories. I think that was what attracted me to them from the very first, when I saw them on her table in the Artist's room at World Fantasy in New Orleans, before there was a carousel or a roller coaster or a ferris wheel. Then, seeing some of the Carousel pieces in Atlanta at World Horror, I was really impressed by how much they made me think and dream and ponder. And, after a while of staring at the one I bought from Lisa -- it's called BAD DATE, and shows a demon-jester riding a snake-tailed mermaid lamia -- I got in touch with her and proposed that she let me write some stories for these things.

Oddly, BAD DATE has hovered just outside the range of my story radar, and I still don't know who these people were, nor why the date was bad enough to remark upon.

Generally speaking, though, working with artists, the knowledge of who the artist is and how they work and what the stuff looks like comes first, and then I write, and then they draw or paint...

Neil
= Friday, September 19, 1997 at 11:00:20 (CDT)

I truly loved the short stories with the sculptures in FAN. I was really hoping that one day I would see a lovely book with glossy photos of the sculptures, short stories, and some longer stories - much like the new Stephen King/ Dave Mckean "Wizard and Glass" edition, which I love. So hopefully this will happen one day, I know it would be awesome. I am really looking forward to Stardust, the B-5 episode and of course Neverwhere the movie. I am off to Lisa's website now (I just found out she has one - yippie!). Cheers,

Lesley
Tuesday, September 23, 1997 at 02:27:39

Neil's right---there is an anthology in the works based on characters from the ferris wheel. There are several authors "on board" but no agreements have been signed as of yet. Still, prospects for the project look pretty good.

I'm still very much looking forward to doing the "coffee table" book with Neil. This is a thing I hope we can really play with. I would like it to be a book filled with wonderful and provocative images, some sculptures phographed, some drawn and printed, and some built of Neil's amazing combinations of words.

Lisa

 Lesley, I also hope to do something longer, like a coffee table book, of the things I've written for Lisa's statues, and some of the longer ones too. One day.

And there's also talk of getting some authors in to write about Lisa's carousel and carnival creatures, perhaps as a short story collection.

But I think it's frustrating, too, that no matter how good the photo and the repoduction, what you see in two dimensions is never what you'd see in three dimensions: in the flesh (so to speak) some of Lisa's statues can drop one's jaw. They don't do that as photos.

The first issue of Stardust comes out in a week or two. I honestly don't know if people will like it or not, so if you do, tell everyone you know...

Neil
= Wednesday, September 24, 1997 4:32 AM(CDT)

Hey Neil and Lisa, I'm glad to hear that you two will be doing another collaboration. I really enjoyed the short stories and the sculptures that appeared in FAN.

It was an unusual but fascinating way to to depict two distinctive mediums As a long time fan of Neil's I can say he never fails to surprise and delight. I think the idea of exploring one's childhood toys is an interesting concept. I can't wait to see the final outcome.

Btw, congratulations Neil on being slated to do an episode of Babylon 5! We're all looking forward to see what you'll do in that universe, it's like a dream come true.

Lisa, please let us know where we can see more of your work and if you'll be doing any shows in the near future. I'm off to see the Sandman now...cheers!

Rocky
Wednesday, September 24, 1997 at 22:26:51

As far as the carousel, I'm just now completing a series of six figures off it, in a very limited edition of 100 each. The first three were introduced earlier (a fantastical owl creature, hare creature and dragon. The next three are a tiger (I use that term loosely!) a mermaid, and a swan. These will start appearing at convention shows shortly, and all six will be available through Worlds of Wonder.

I've had to put lots of things on hold pending my move from one coast to another---an even harder task than I imagined (and I can imagine quite a bit). My next show will be the Loscon convention in Burbank during Thanksgiving weekend. After that isn't settled, except that I plan to have the ENTIRE CARNIVAL at the 1998 WorldCon in Baltimore, and I'll be artist GoH at the 1999 World Horror Convention in Atlanta. If anyone has questions though, they may email me at Jester738@aol.com.

Lisa

 Thanks, Rocky. I'm writing the Babylon 5 episode right now -- it's called 'The Day of the Dead'. It's very strange, and I hope that Joe Straczynski likes it. I have no idea whether or not the viewers will like it, but I'm worried less about them...

Neil



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