Telling
Stories:
the Art of Iain McCaig
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from The Sorcerer's Apprentice © Iain McCaig |
Act One: About the Storyteller
by Terri Windling
I first met Iain McCaig many years ago when he came to visit in Devon, England. A fine sense of timing must be one of the fairy gifts bestowed at his birth, for he arrived just in time for champagne and harp music at a party full of artists in my overgrown garden. He was carrying a large portfolio bursting with sketches, paintings, stories and ideas — and soon enfolded us all in the magical spell that he conjures wherever he goes. We were working together on a book called The Sorcerer's Apprentice at the time (a volume which, all these years later, is finally nearing completion). But before we'd even approached the business that had brought him from California to my door, he'd already become part of the "family," as though we'd all known him for many years. (I remember, for instance, that he gamely allowed himself to be hauled off to a fair at the local school, where the two of us token Yanks were asked to judge a group of young children in a costume contest. They'd been told to "dress like Americans," so we watched a rather surreal progression of cowboys, Indians, cheerleaders, and tourists in loud mismatched clothes — then gave the prize to the little boy dressed in drag as the Statue of Liberty.) Since that first meeting, I've learned that enthusiasm, generosity of spirit, and an ease in making deep, lasting friendships are three of his other fairy gifts — along with the gift (or is it a curse?) of always moving in six directions at once, with more energy and sheer creativity than any other ten artists put together.
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"Faeries" from
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
©
Iain McCaig
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Iain was born in the U.S., raised in Canada, studied art in Scotland, and began his career in London. He now lives in northern California with his wife and two children. He is an artist whose life has long been dedicated to storytelling, using a wide range of media to evoke magical tales, mythic visions, and dreams. He has illustrated books, written screenplays, designed and directed films and animation — as well as teaching and inspiring other artists to do these things. His film design credits include Frankenstein, Hook, Interview With a Vampire, and many others (see his Biography page for more information); while most recently he has been a principal designer for the new Star Wars films. He also directed the children's film The Face, and runs his own production company, Dananxi Studios, dedicated to mythic arts.
Although film has been a big part of his life since he moved to the U.S. ten years ago, he retains a deep passion for books, illustration, and words on the printed page. The Sorcerer's Apprentice is an illustrated book that he has dreamed of, pondered, sketched, developed, and fleshed out over many years. Loosely based on the classic Goethe poem, the book tells the story of a young Devon girl who runs away with the gypsies, encountering a world of faeries and sorcery at the heart of an old, dark woodland. The art is by Iain, I wrote the story, and Robert Gould is designing the volume (publication forthcoming via Joshua Greene's Stories to Remember).
In the years to come, I expect Iain will continue to be pulled between the West Coast world of film-making and the East Coast world of book publishing (as well as between the two lands of his heart: North America and Britain). Someday both worlds will become more aware of his exceptional talents as a film director — and then, perhaps, those six directions he runs in might narrow a bit. When that happens, I hope those of us in the East don't lose him to the glamour of the West altogether . . . yet no matter what tools Iain chooses to use to tell his enchanted, spirited tales — whether paints, or pencils, or words, or the camera, or computers, or something that has yet to be invented — I, for one, shall be listening. His stories are pure magic.
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McCaig Interviews McCaig |
Copyright © 1999 by Iain McCaig and Terri Windling