Bendy Thoughts

Inspiration for this room came from a book of images I pasted together when I was a devotee of all magazines related to interior design. I didn't want to get too fancy as I don't draw, but merely doodle. The face around Ms. La-La's window is based on a fabulous fireplace that exists somewhere in the world. The real-life fireplace's visage could be a beast or the anthropomorphization of the North Wind. Ms. La-La's window is most definitely a lion.

One of my childhood nightmares was the appearance of a giant tiger's head, whose jaws were agape, in my schoolroom. Someone would have to walk into those jaws, and the job always fell to me. I always woke up in a cold sweat.


I drew the eyes, nose and cheeks for a guide, everything else is freehand. I cut paper into strips, and edged them with a black Sharpie. Wielding a hot glue gun, I adhered these strips to La-La's wall at a ninety-degree angle. The crystal, sparkly bits are the sloppy remains of my glue. The paper is either glued into a spiral or it just undulates. Some strips are not glued all the way down; they were then made curly by running them across scissors' edge.

When I worked at Children's Hour in New Orleans, one of my favorite tasks was to wrap up birthday gifts and curl up buoyant bouquets of ribbon. One woman shocked me with the curt command to not curl the ribbon. She posited that too much attention is given to children's egos, and she had no desire to puff up anybody without cause. If embellishing a few ribbons to brighten up a birthday package is the first stone in the path of society's ruin, then you'll find me on a roof gleefully curling while Rome burns. People are so strange.

The walls were inspired by how some Africans decorate their make-shift homes in the slums surrounding cities. They take discarded refuse and packaging, then paper their walls in patterns that are still aesthetically pleasing. This follows the tradition of Africans decorating their homes with whatever is at hand, using pattern and shapes to encourage the eye to dance. Ms. La-La's walls are papered with discarded newspapers and then blotted with watercolor.

I have delightfully discovered that googling my evil fairy's name will reveal that there is a picnicking area in South Africa that bears her name as well as a city in Mozambique. Plus, there might be an Asian goddess that shares her honorific.


La-La's tub is very plain. Just a Sharpied outline on the paper. It's her vessel where she might observe, soak up or receive truth. So, I wanted to keep it pure. It's also a nod to the mighty Shel Silverstein, whose drawings and poems made me belly laugh as a child.

Curiously enough, another recurring dream from my childhood occurred in a Silverstein landscape. Of course, it was a white void. I was myself and full-blooded. A froward brat with a bouncy bun on my head in red corduroys. But, everything else was drawn in the squiggly black lines of nonsense modern. Two animated alligators were chasing me relentlessly. During my flight, I came across the instruments of the playground: see-saw, merry-go-round, swing set, monkey bars, and the highest slide I had ever imagined. I was "scared" but the good kind of scared as experienced by thrillseekers on certain rollercoasters. I ran for my life, and I laughed all the way.

The bookcase itself is drawn. But, the titles within it were typed up on the finest paper available. The thread count of this paper was absolutely royal. I collected poems, nursery rhymes, and book and song titles. All of them have significance and were carefully chosen. I then cut their words up to fit the spines that could be shelved in the case. This picture just shows the books in the case. Like any true booklover, La-La has piles of books everywhere waiting for her attention.

An excerpt from an obituary for Angela Carter

"She was the opposite of parochial. Nothing, for her, was outside the pale: she wanted to know about everything and everyone, and every place and every word. She relished life and language hugely, and revelled in the diverse."

The Observer 1992