Protection

Meg Walker

Interview by C. VanWinkle

October 29, 2021

Can you please begin by describing the piece that you responded to?

First of all, I just want to say to whoever wrote it: I’m literally obsessed with it. I’m intrigued. I’m fascinated. If there’s more to the story, I would love to read it. I don’t know if it’s just the small snippet that you sent to me. It was bizarre! I love the way it was written because it was just very unique. In my mind, the way I envision this story playing out, I almost pictured it as somebody who might have something like dissociative identity disorder. They’re in their own, like, mind palace. There are all of these chaotic occurrences happening all at the same time where parts are being broken down, and there are various characters inside this mind palace. And whoever is the owner of this palace is setting up these rituals or spells or using these sigils or sacred marks to protect themselves from the chaos that’s happening within. There’s this character or entity they refer to as “the thing that glows” and it’s talking to this main character. I had to read it a few times, and even after the third or fourth time, I’m still not sure what’s happening, but I’m here for it. I just love the strangeness of it. Even though I really didn’t have a solid clue as to what was happening, I didn’t care because I just truly, truly enjoyed it.

So what happened next? Can you walk me through the process?

Yeah. Because there was so much going on in the piece, I really tried to focus on the parts that really stood out to me, that I felt drawn to in terms of how I wanted to represent it visually. I was fascinated by the idea of whoever the main character is, the person who’s telling this story, and this ritual that they were performing. I think they made reference to sigils, and I wasn’t exactly sure what a sigil is. I’d heard the word before, but I actually had to look up the definition of what it was. They’re these magical symbols that are meant to be protection against evil things. And I was like, Well that sounds pretty fucking cool. I felt really drawn to that idea of casting these spells of protection and using various paints to kind of seal the spell or whatever. I was really fascinated by the idea of them using these various spells and rituals and magical symbols to protect themselves from whatever they felt they needed protection from. So that was my starting-off point. They don’t describe the space where this is all occurring, but I guess in my own mind’s eye, I saw it as this Victorian mansion with all of these multiple rooms and maybe hidden nooks and crannies. So that’s where I came up with the structure and the background. I love drawing people, but I get very finicky about it. Knowing that I only had two weeks, I didn’t want to get myself into something that I was going to be obsessing about for months and not get done on time. So I just focused on hands, these hands casting these spells of protection.

That’s great. I’ve seen some of your work before, but none of it seems reminiscent of this written piece. So I wondered, “What is she going to do with this?”

Yeah! I think you know I am very often drawn to the figure, but in this piece, it wasn’t like the author described anybody in great visual detail. So I guess I was stepping outside of my comfort zone a little bit, drawing what I felt inspired to based on the writing, and not just going with what I would initially draw if I were drawing something completely on my own.

How important was it to stay close to the source material? Was that something you intentionally tried to stick to?

I wanted whoever had taken the time and effort to write the prose that you sent me to be able to see something of their story in the piece. For me personally, as an illustrator, if someone asked me to illustrate a story of theirs, I would obviously want them to be able to see their work in my work and not have it be just what I decided to do. So while I think the story lent itself to a lot of wiggle room, because it was so unique and strange, I’m hoping that if the author gets a chance to see my piece, they can see their story in it.

That’s the best. Your piece is rather spooky. Are you spooky?

[laughs] I would say yes and no. It’s interesting that you sent me this piece, because I feel like I’ve been going on my own spiritual exploration over the past half a year, becoming more interested in things like tarot cards and mediumship. I don’t know if I would necessarily call myself spooky, but I am kind of opening up myself and becoming more aware of the possibility that there are things out there that we cannot see, that might be there. I felt like this kind of piece was really fitting because it let me explore some of these things happening in my personal life through my artwork.

I love that. I’m so excited that you’re doing this!

Thank you. It’s been a wild ride and I’m really excited about it, too.

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

You know, even though a lot of my work tends to be figure-based and this might not have that in common, I feel like the color palette [is related]. I tend to use brighter, bolder, fun colors. These aren’t saturated, bright colors, but I did use some neon pink for accents. So I feel like the colors are similar to colors that I would use if I were just drawing for myself. And I don’t think I still have it quite figured out, but I’m using my natural aesthetic. Drawing in this not-hyper-realistic or stylized way is kind of true to my own style in general. I try to combine how I would naturally do something if I was creating a piece for myself with making it relatable to the piece that I was using as inspiration.

Do you collaborate often or was this a pretty unusual experience for you?

There was something similar that I did a couple years ago. There’s this guy who owns an ice cream store in Somerville called Gracie’s Ice Cream. He was writing this narrative, like a fictitious love story. He would send a chapter out and then multiple artists or musicians, or even chefs, would respond in their chosen medium. But that was years ago. Other than that, it’s mostly just me illustrating for myself or commissions I’ve taken for people. But it’s always been a standalone piece, not in relation to something else serving as the inspiration for it.

Okay. Did you enjoy this? Was it stressful? Was it fun?

It was both. I enjoyed it because I felt really connected to the piece of writing. I was just fascinated by it, so it was exciting getting a chance to find a way to represent it visually. The deadline stressed me out because I teach full-time, I’m a mom, my time to make art is very few and far between. So trying to get something done in an allotted amount of time was a little difficult. But other than that, I really, really enjoyed it and I had such a good time creating the piece. Once I had an image in my mind of what I wanted to make and I didn’t really have to stress too much over the concept, it was just like, Okay, now you actually have to do it. That was the hard part, but I saw very clearly what I wanted to make. It was just a matter of sitting down and finding the time to bring it to fruition.

It’s always the doing it that’s the hard part.

Yeah, right? In my mind it looks awesome. Now I just gotta do it.

Alright, last question. Do you have any advice for someone else approaching this project for the first time?

I would say, if you’re thinking about it, go for it. When I saw your post, I thought that I should, but finding the time to do this was tough. But you know what? You gotta force yourself to make the time to do the things that you’re passionate about, because it’s easy to make excuses like Work is so chaotic and Homelife is so chaotic. But making art truly brings me joy. Finding the time to do the things that make you happy is really important. I think that’s what this did for me. It made me sit down and make, which is good.

Call Number: C57PP | C59VA.waPro

Meg Walker is an artist and illustrator, living and working in the Boston area. She enjoys working in a variety of mediums but has been focusing on digital illustration for the past few years. She is also an art educator, working with students in Boston Public Schools.