Literary Chicago

A WAYWARD WRITER ARTIST

Audrey Niffenegger uses the word “wayward” to describe Chicago artists. Although there is only, as she puts it, a “smattering” of them represented in the modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, she feels that their work there is a good illustration of how windy city artists tend to wander, creatively speaking. She should know. Aside from her powerful and wildly popular novels, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, Niffenegger has created prints, paintings, drawings, comics, and “artist’s books” that she printed and bound by hand in editions of ten. (My own copy of The Adventuress is not one of these rare pieces of paper art but, rather, a commercially published replica that wears a sticker saying, “A Novel in Pictures by the Best-Selling Author . . .”)

On Wikipedia, Niffenegger is referred to first as a writer, then as an artist and academic. But during today’s conversation at Film Row Cinema, she says, “I never actually decided to be a novelist. I tell people it’s my hobby. At the moment, I’m headed toward ballet.” This is not impetuousness. Although her career may be as multifaceted as J-Lo’s, its progression seems to be a natural and lifelong unfolding of artistic and intellectual curiosity. She started out making prints as an apprentice to William Wimmer in 1978, began exhibiting her work at Printworks Gallery in 1987, got her MFA from Northwestern University’s Department of Art Theory and Practice in 1991, and only started writing her first novel in 1997. Even now, after getting a five-million-dollar advance on her second novel, Niffenegger still seems to consider herself first and foremost a visual artist and, at Columbia College Chicago, she only teaches writing courses that “specialize in text-image relationships” (www.audreyniffenegger.com).

However wayward Niffenegger may be, it seems that she will forever be grounded in the visual. In a review of “The Night Bookmobile,” an illustrated short story due to be published in September, an unnamed New City critic writes:

“Niffenegger’s art has often been compared to Edward Gorey’s, and justifiably so: her work incorporates the same stark, haunting figures and her stories, like Gorey’s, are often dark and chimerical. Niffenegger’s drawings, however, are more intimate than Gorey’s and, even when dealing with death, they manage to be infused with life” (http://art.newcity.com/2009/07/20/review-audrey-niffeneggerprintworks-gallery/).

Given her talent for both visual arts and storytelling, one cannot help but wonder what cinematic masterpiece would have resulted if New Line Cinema had consulted her in making the movie adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife, which one hopes would have been the case if, as IMDB asserts, the production company had succeeded in securing Steven Spielberg, Gus Van Sant, or David Fincher to direct it. According to Niffenegger, New Line refused to honor even three modest requests: that the movie be filmed in Chicago, that it “not have a sucky soundtrack,” and that its ending be faithful to the book. (SPOILER ALERT! Skip to the next paragraph if you haven’t yet read The Time Traveler’s Wife!) “Pretty early in the movie-making process,” she says, “it came down from on high that we could not cut off his feet.” She doesn’t seem bitter, however, perhaps understanding that, as a member of tonight’s audience pointed out, “The book and the movie are each playing to very different audiences.” Let’s just say the movie was aimed at audiences that love the soft focus.

Maybe after she’s put up her September exhibit at Printworks Gallery, and after she’s finished writing her third novel, The Chinchilla Girl in Exile, and after she’s had her fill of ballet, she will explore the medium of film and show them over at New Line how it’s done—or, rather, how it can be done when you are a wayward artist with a unique appreciation of human nature. She may tell them, as she tells us during the conversation today, “You cannot make false assertions about human nature because the reader will object.” Only she’ll say viewer instead of reader, which seems only natural for someone who is first and foremost a visual artist.

EVENT: CONVERSATION WITH AUDREY NIFFENEGGER | TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010 AT 3:30PM | FILM ROW CINEMA | AN EVENT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO’S CRITICAL ENCOUNTERS SERIES