An Interview with Charles Vess

GG: What is your next project?

CV: Charles de Lint and I are expanding our A Circle of Cats picture book into a 150-page illustrated short novel for middle grade readers (for publisher Little Brown). That means more text and approximately 70 more illustrations. Little Brown will follow up with a reprinting of its sequel Seven Wild Sisters.
Then too, my wife Karen Shaffer and I are deep into co-writing a Young Adult prose novel (with LOTS of illustrations by me), titled The Greenwood

GG: Tell us about the giant sculpture that you recently created.

CV: Several years ago the Barter Theatre asked me to design a bronze fountain to be located on the Barter Green in the middle of downtown Abingdon, Virginia where I have my studio. Along with co-sculptor David Spence I worked up a drawing for a piece based on A Midsummer Night's Dream. It continues to be a very hands-on experience of first learning to sculpt and then working with the bronze. When completed (anytime now!) it will measure 15 x 16ft in diameter and height and feature Titania, Queen of Faerie, and Puck, that merry wanderer of the night, as well as various animals and assorted wee fairy types. Progress has been slow but can be viewed in several lengthy posts on my blog: www.greenmanpress.com/news

GG: You've worked with many of art and literature's brightest stars. Who haven't you collaborated with that you would like to?

CV: Long ago I realized that the better the writing that I'm working from the better my art is, so that's an easy question. Lord Dunsany is very high on my list of authors whose work I'd love to illustrate. Two of my very favorite authors are Alice Hoffman and Louise Erdrich. I'd love to illustrate some of their prose. But there's also one author (now sadly passed away), Angela Carter, who wrote a gorgeous collection of re-worked fairy tales, The Bloody Chamberthat one day I will have to tackle just to see what comes out of me.

GG: Your artwork has appeared in comic books, novels, young adult books, magazines, and was the inspiration for the 2007 film Stardust. What is your favorite medium to illustrate?

CV: I've never been one to draw arbitrary lines in the sand so I welcome any challenges that a different medium will present. So, like I said above, anything that's written well and makes my fingers itch to draw will do.

GG: Do you have any good stories from the time that you spent on the set of the Stardust film to share?

CV: Let's see