Australian - Artist | 1974 -
Like all of my previous work - which I also hope is a bit hard to categorise - 'The Oopsatoreum' is an illustrated book, so a combination of words and pictures that tell a kind of story.
Shaun Tan
WorkHopeWordsBookStoryPictures
Drawing a good picture is like telling a really good lie - the key is in the incidental detail.
GoodLieDetailKeyPictureDrawing
The detail adds an element of unexpected something. All fiction is false; what makes it convincing is that it runs alongside the truth. The real world has lots of incidental details, so a painting also has to have that element of imperfection and irregularity, those incidental details.
TruthPaintingDetailWorldDetails
By itself, just to draw crazy creatures has limited appeal - if I had to give up one thing, it would be the wild imagination. When the work becomes too detached from ordinary life, it starts to fall apart. Fantasy needs to have some connection with reality, or it becomes of its own interest only, insular.
LifeWorkImaginationCrazyReality
Seeing your work in print is exciting, especially when you're young. It's that feeling that you have some effect on the world outside of your immediate neighbourhood.
WorkWorldYouSeeingFeelingYoung
You discover how confounding the world is when you try to draw it. You look at a car, and you try to see its car-ness, and you're like an immigrant to your own world. You don't have to travel to encounter weirdness. You wake up to it.
CarTravelWorldWake UpYouLook
It was better to be known as the kid who could draw than as the short kid.
BetterShortKidWhoThanKnown
Illustrating is more about communicating specific ideas to a reader. Painting is more like pure science, more about the act of painting.
ScienceIdeasPaintingMorePure
I became more interested in the idea of being an immigrant and particularly of being in a country you're not familiar with. And so I began reading migrants' stories. The fact that my father is Chinese - he emigrated from Malaysia when he was about 20 - may have had some bearing on my attraction to the subject.
FatherReadingYouCountryImmigrant
Whenever I start a project, I have a broad range of possibilities.
StartPossibilitiesProjectRange
For myself, I've kind of always been interested in pets because they're not human.
MyselfKindHumanAlwaysPetsBeen
Animals represent the abstract notion of acceptance. Living with these funny creatures - you kind of have to accept them. It's like a test in a way.
FunnyAcceptanceYouKindLiving
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Shaun Tan quotes