Snow White.
I still have the first pop-up book I ever got my chubby little hands on. It’s the fairy tale Schneewittchen (The Brothers Grimm, 1857). That’s German for Snow White, of course. I did a little research and discovered that the artist behind my book is none other than Vojtech Kubasta, the pioneer of three-dimensional animated books. Mine is the version he did for Walt Disney’s film Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.
Kubasta, V. (1969). Schneewittchen. Pop-Up-Kinderbuch. Carlsen Verlag, Artia Prag.
It’s wild how this book has sparked soooo much of my artwork. The book was alive, ya see! It had moving parts that made it magical to me. And I have been making art with moving parts off and on since 2001. No lie.
But if we stick to very basic materials like paper, popsicle sticks, string, and the like, then I’d say my first creation was a kitchen shoebox diorama when I was 13. And then a paper theater I made for a music video when I was 42.
Kubasta, V. (1969). Schneewittchen. Pop-Up-Kinderbuch. Carlsen Verlag, Artia Prag.
Shoebox Story.
When I was young, I built a miniature kitchen inside a shoebox. It took me hours and hours to finish. I got so obsessed with the details. It was pure bliss.
Wanna know how old I was? I was 13. And I can prove it to you because if you zoom in, you’ll see a miniature calendar over the fridge with the year scribbled on it.
I LOVED spending time alone in my room messing around with my projects. I even had a big fat STAY OUT sign taped to my bedroom door.
My happy place has always been about losing myself in play and making. But of course, I have more happy places... bookstores, craft stores, toy stores, museums, to name a few. It’s funny how these places all have something to do with getting ideas for making stuff.
The Life Puzzle.
It’s never been hard for me to devote time to my creative projects. Creative play time is what boosts my energy. It’s what makes me feel good.
Along with my philosophy of following breadcrumbs, I think LIFE is like a puzzle.
Yep. Life is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, and we don’t have the luxury of having the picture on the box. So I think we’re always moving puzzle pieces around to see if they fit together.
There’s the creative piece that connects you to your true self - your creative soul. There’s the movement piece that connects you to your wild self - your animal body. There’s the social piece that connects you to others - your sense of belonging. There’s the work piece that connects you to the world - your sense of purpose.
I’m over-simplifying here, but you get the idea.
Creative Fingerprint.
My latest obsession is about investigating my creative fingerprint. I’ve been excavating memories and photos, and digging through my artwork archives. It’s astonishing to me how my childhood loves show up over and over and over again in my creations. My whole body of work is clearly sparked by my childhood.
Ya see, there’s a spark that drives your creative expression throughout your life. And all the different things you create are simply all the different ways of saying the same thing in response to this spark inside you.
This spark lives inside of you as a question - your fingerprint question.
My fingerprint question = What do I do with this deep yearning to belong?
And today. I’m sharing artwork that’s been sparked by my Snow White pop-up book.
It’s not hard to see how my art has always evoked a yearning to belong. But for the longest time, I thought it was all about me making art that helped me relive my childhood.
But ever since I started down the rabbit hole of my fingerprint question, I can see there’s more going on beneath the surface.
Within each of us, there are light and dark qualities. Belonging to the world means belonging to yourself first.
And belonging to all of yourself is about being fully alive.
Paper Theater Magic.
In 2011, I jumped at the opportunity to make a paper theater for a music video of a song called The Dragon And The Bear. I had long been obsessed with paper theaters, and this was my chance. So I took a big cardboard box and began my month-long adventure. I kept things really old school, channeling my best MacGyver instincts, and only used the computer to record. No computer effects. Spoiler alert: I used mostly paper and cardboard, sticks and strings, tape and hot glue, pins and popsicle sticks. Oh, and a whole lotta love. Smile.
Here’s a behind the scenes look of how I made my paper theater:
Video: Paper Theater Magic, ©2011 Alex Mitchell, Music: ©2011 Never Been To Honolulu
©2011 Alex Mitchell, THE DRAGON AND THE BEAR, Paper Theater for Music Video, Acrylic on paper and cardboard, mixed media
©2011 Alex Mitchell, THE DRAGON AND THE BEAR, Paper Theater for Music Video, Acrylic on paper and cardboard, mixed media
And here’s how the finished music video turned out:
Video: The Dragon And The Bear, Music and lyrics: ©2011 Never Been To Honolulu, Artwork and video: ©2011 Alex Mitchell
Whatever Way We Can.
maybe Life is like a giant jigsaw puzzle
with a bazillion pieces
all oddly shaped
and delicately colored
the pieces come to us randomly
one by one
and if we’re lucky
we can line up some edges
or finish a corner
but mostly
we look at each new piece
and wonder
how it fits
because what we don’t have
is the picture on the box
so we grapple
we hypothesize
we guess
but in the end
we make it all hold together
in whatever way
we can
we plug in
our secret dreams
where the pieces refuse to fit
we color in
our deepest desires
in the awkward empty spaces
and we make it all hold together
in whatever way
we can
we just make it all hold together
in whatever way
we can
Come Play: Matchbox Diorama - Your Happy Place
So in honor of my first pop-up book, I made a little matchbox diorama of one of the pages (pic above). Smile.
Well, that’s all for today’s post. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little detour down creative-fingerprint-memory lane. There’s more to come!
p.s. If you're curious about your own fingerprint question, I give you the steps to a little exercise here: https://twinkiwinki.com/pages/following-joy