Painted by words

Gennifer Albin

Gennifer Albin writes about how a painting provided the spark she needed for her young adult science fiction novel Crewel

I grew up with an artist mother, so it should surprise no one that my debut novel was inspired by a painting. Our house was littered with art books and we spent time at the local gallery. I have a deep appreciation for the medium, but I have no artistic skill. While Mom devoured information about the great masters, I discovered a different outlet of creative expression writing and theatre. The world of books and plays seemed to me to be painted by words. I was amazed that the written word could so easily transport me to another time and place. I could see the worlds of these stories as vividly as one of my mother’s paintings.

I was probably about eight when I attempted to write and illustrate my own book. It bore a striking resemblance to a picture book we had at home, but no one said anything about that. I’m grateful. Looking back, I realise I was learning how to structure a story by mimicking someone else’s.

In college and graduate school, I attempted more novels, often heavily influenced by something I’d recently read.  The stories came to nothing. I didn’t even finish them. But I was introduced to more writing in my literature courses and soon began to understand the mechanics of story and theme. In graduate studies it was my job to dissect works, and I tend so from a variety of angles. One of those books was Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49.

Pynchon’s novel references a painting by Remedios Varos, 'Bordando El Manto Terreste', that depicts girls embroidering in a tower. Their tapestry flows out of the tower windows to cover the world. I became obsessed with the painting and Varos’ fascinating style, which subverted psychoanalysis through surrealism.

A few years later, I spied the novel on my bookshelf and thought of the painting. Later that evening I sat down and wrote a page from the perspective of a girl who is being taken to the tower to create the world.  That page is now the opening prologue to my novel Crewel. It’s endured a few changes, but the initial spark is still there. I knew when I wrote it that this story was different.

In many ways, beginning a story based on a painting was the push I needed to commit to writing a novel.  I had the tools from years of analysis to write a book. I knew how to construct a story, but I lacked inspiration. Varo’s painting provided the final spark of life I needed.

That is not to say that writing the book came easily. As fascinated as I was with Varo’s work, I was left with a lot of questions about how this world would function. I made a conscious decision to make it science fiction rather than high fantasy, because I was intrigued by the nature of reality and how we perceive it. And I set the story in a world very different than the one depicted in the painting. Yes, there are girls and a tour, but in Crewel, the girls, titled Spinsters, engage in a larger spectrum of womanly arts, including weaving, sewing and embroidering. The man overseeing the girls’ work in the painting became an entire male government who dictate and control the Spinsters’ work in the novel.

But in both there is one special girl. In Varo’s painting, you can see one girl is doing something she is not supposed to with her thread. This girl’s eyes look out at the viewer as if to call attention to her extraordinary nature. Crewel is her story. A novel about a girl who sees her world even when she doesn’t fully understand it, a girl with the capacity to challenge expectations, and ultimately, a girl who dictates her own reality.

Read our review of Crewel by Gennifer Albin

The Crewel book trailer

Over the summer, The Spark (Faber's online community for young people interested in creativity and reading) ran a competition to find a young singer-songwriter, band or musician to create an original soundtrack to the official Crewel book trailer.The winner was 14-year-old Roisin O'Hagan, who created the haunting song 'It's a Lie' which accompanies the final trailer created by artist Caroline Melis:

Visit The Spark to download the track for free