By having the masterpieces have rich interior lives, and showing the creative process outside the frame, I think the book succeeds in helping the reader see art as a living thing. So I talk a lot in the book about what it was like when the painting was being created, how the artist worked to bring out the personality of the subject but couldn’t help but infuse a bit of themselves in it as well. I really wanted to find a way to show kids that art, and the creation of art, is magical, and that they are part of that creation. But the energy that went into that image was phenomenal, and I like to imagine that it spills out back towards the person who’s looking at the painting. For so many people, art is one dimensional, flat images hanging on the wall. Every creative person will tell you about those times when the characters or the painting or the song or whatever it is “takes over” and suddenly things take strange and amazing turns.
My whole life, I’ve wrestled with how it is that we get our inspiration and how that manifests in whatever we do. I love that you explore creativity and creative energy as living things – can you explain why you wanted to talk about that in the book and how you did it? That supported my conviction that I was onto something! The most unexpected thing was how many gallery/museum personnel report feeling an energy from the artwork, especially after hours. I spent a month researching the time periods of the masterpieces that are characters in the book so I could have them sound somewhat like the era they were from, as well as art techniques, the history of art thefts and forgeries, and the lives of some of the real people who are portraits in the story. How much research went into this and anything unexpected you came across? I struggled a bit to decide what I would write next, and one night, while sitting in my living room, the idea came to me, and it was so real, and so vivid, that I knew it was an amazing idea and that for sure it had to be my next book! The idea of art being alive is not a new idea but the idea of these parallel worlds existing side-by-side, and what happens when someone accidentally lifts the veil, seemed fresh and fun to me. How did you know that the idea for THE FRAME-UP was your next book and how did it all come about? Well, she’s at it again with book two, THE FRAME-UP. You might remember Wendy from an interview last year when her debut
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