In The World of Glimpse, Palestrant takes readers into the fantasy realm of the Glimpsibles, a Seussian world of joy, theatricality, vibrant color, wonder, words and rhyme, with meta messages that are timeless, resonant and relevant. I spoke to Palestrant about her book on the eve of her art opening Thursday June 5 at Liberty Fine Art Gallery on Reno’s Riverwalk District.

Oliver X: When Jill Glenn placed your book in my hands, I immediately knew I was encountering a stunning work by an important artist. Describe how this mixed media collection of art and ideas came about?

Ellen Palestrant: Thank you, Oliver. I really appreciate your enthusiastic response to my work. The beginning of what has become The World of Glimpse, actually started way back when I was in my twenties. I was driving home one evening with my husband, when a very simple verse popped into my head: “In the Land of the Grisibles/Far away in the sky/ Lived many Invisibles/Who were able to fly…” I have no idea where those words came from but they felt like an invitation into new realms of my imagination. Even today, I continue to explore this domain and dwell most comfortably in it. The World of Glimpse has undergone many evolutions since its inception. Nevertheless, it still remains true to its essence.

I often had to put The World of Glimpse away, in fact, sometimes for long periods of time. I raised a family, had a special education practice, wrote books, articles, television scripts, invented board games, became a hydroponic farmer, immigrated with my family from South Africa to the USA (where I taught college and lectured about the creative process). The World of Glimpse, with all its mystery and possibilities, remained a river that flowed continuously through my life, sometimes barely discernable, but always within beckoning distance. The work (like me) has undergone many transitions, but its essence, which catapulted me into my imagination that night in our car, has never left me and my commitment to pushing the boundaries of my own capabilities in order for this work to realize its full potential, has never waivered.

The art is as essential as the language in this work. A number of illustrators offered their renderings and I was, at times, in contact with several large producers. Nothing ever felt right for either my visualizations of The World of Glimpse, or for its multi-media potential. Even though I had illustrated some of my other books in black and white, it was only with the insistent urging of my very close and exceptional friend, Jill Glenn, that I began to paint about seven years ago, thereby creating the art for the book myself. I am forever grateful to Jill for her persistence. I produced every page of this book myself according to my vision.

Oliver X: Talk about how you developed the plot and the unique lexicon on display here.

Ellen Palestrant: In terms of plot, I didn’t pre-plan or impose a direction. All I knew was that I wanted, in my imagination, to create two contrasting and colliding worlds: one of brilliant color, positivity, creativity and exuberance, and the other of negativity, avarice and destructivity. I just knew that all I had to do, initially, was truly enter this world. I trusted the process of allowing the plot to develop itself. It evolved as I evolved. Characters with personalities, quirks, abilities – traits found in all of us but exaggerated within my story – emerged.

I love language, I love literature, and so in this fantasy world that I created, The World of Glimpse, every word, including the invented ones, was important to me. I never invented a word simply for the sake of invention. It had to be the right word for the context, one that had a credibility and logic to it. Each word became, for me, a visual and auditory experience that encapsulated the imagery and the ideas swirling in my imagination.

Oliver X: The full frontal sensory barrage found in The World of Glimpse is unlike anything I have encountered outside of Walt Disney’s Fantasia– and yet this is a book!  Talk about the boundaries you trample; your ability to mesh and blur genres and evoke sensations of sound, lyricism and movement without devolving into a cacophony of absurdity.

Ellen Palestrant: I felt I was doing much more than a book. Each page and turn of the page had to contain just the right language, rhythm and visual choices. The white spaces had to be just right: a juxtaposition of abundance and stillness. I trusted my senses on all of this. It took many years and much intuition to complete this book. I saw the whole as a giant canvas, but in contrast to a canvas on a wall, where we can see whether each aspect of the painting pulls its own weight, I had to lay out 200-pages in my mind and keep a consistency: an aesthetic flow of text, art, colors and rhythms that looked and felt just right to me as a complete book. I am my first audience. It has to feel right to me. I have loved this process, and yes, as you have said, I love to trample boundaries, not simply for the sake of doing so, but in order to blend, complement, juxtapose, enhance and enrich my complete visualization. I choose not to be bounded by categories or genres. However, an internal logic must reign. I choose something because I feel that it is the best way to represent a particular idea. There has to be a feeling of truth. Along the way, I allow the uncensored vitality of my first thoughts to move into my work, and then step back, look again, and if it works, it stays. I know that a soaring imagination is not enough; it has to be accompanied by a richness of ideas, thoughts, themes, language, images, feelings – and logic.

Oliver X:  What do you see as the future for The World of Glimpse?

Ellen Palestrant: The book is complete. I have almost finished producing a video of The World of Glimpse comprising my art and my narration of the story. I envision The World of Glimpse as a theatrical production, adapted to the stage and perhaps, eventually, to an animated film. Whatever its path or paths ultimately may be, it’s exhilarating working on all of this.