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screensDivya Srinivasan IsLiving the Dream of ArtThe multimedia creator’s workwakes a world’s imaginationby Wayne a lan b r e n n e rGetting a phone call from Ira Glass ofThis American Life while she was shoppingin Target wasn’t a thing that suddenly shiftedDivya Srinivasan into creative overdrive.After all, the artist – who’d started out in theearly Nineties doing comic strips for TheDaily Texan – has been trucking along withher artwork for about two decades now.You might have seen some of the stuffSrinivasan’s done. She illustrated a nine-minutesegment of Richard Linklater’s WakingLife; she’s done a series of animated videos forThey Might Be Giants, a steady stream ofillustrations for The New Yorker; she createdthe award-winning wraparound artwork forSufjan Stevens’ Illinois album; she –But let’s not just scroll out the industryrap sheet that ends with her current success,the children’s book called Little Owl’sNight. Let’s talk to the author and videomaker– whose second illustrated book forkids, Octopus Alone, will be out from Vikingthis spring – let’s talk to the artist herselfand find out how she got into the business,the whole drawing-for-a-living career, andwhat that’s been like.40 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E JANUARY 18, 2013 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o mStill from theOctopus Project’s“I Saw the brightShinies” videoFor links to video and to seemore of Srinivisan’s work, go toaustinchronicle.com/screens.We’re sitting at a table outside ThunderbirdCoffee on Manor Road. It’s cold – too coldfor Texas, damn it – but there’s only an occasionalbreeze, not enough wind to amplifythe chill, and the sun is bright up there inthe unclouded blue. Srinivasan is smilinguncertainly, her pretty face framed on bothsides by shoulder-length hair like tricklingliquid licorice. She’s not comfortable, notreally, with being interviewed, but she’sgenerous with her words.“I was always drawing in college,” shesays. “I had a comic strip called ‘SexuallyRepressed Girl,’ and I did that for a fewyears. And I made some ugly paintings inthe Nineties, like people do in college, whenyou’re more bold and you can put things upand not care. Or, I don’t know, maybe you’renot so self-conscious about it then. But,yeah, I always liked to make stuff on myown. I didn’t take art classes – I was alwaysintimidated by taking a class. Having peoplelook at your stuff and critique it? Forbetter of worse, I didn’t want to do that.”After graduating from UT in ’95,Srinivasan got a job with AndersenJ o h n A n d e r s o nConsulting in San Francisco. Which doesn’tsound … precisely artistic?“I really wanted to get to San Francisco,because CD-ROMs were being made thereby Electronic Arts – with a lot of activities,like what apps are now? Back then I wantedto do that, so I thought, if I can just get toSan Francisco, I can wiggle my way intodoing animation and things like that. But Iwasn’t able to do that at Andersen. I hung onfor a year there and then took six months todo a kids’ book idea that I had.” She shakesher head, black hair shifting, and lets out asmall self-deprecating chuckle. “Knowingwhat I know now, I see the problems with it.But I tried, because doing stuff for kids,that’s appealing to me. But nothing happenedwith that, and I needed money, so Istarted working for a web design firm – thiswas in ’97 – for about a year.”And is that where Srinivasan learned themultimedia skills she’s used in her personaland high-profile projects?“In college, my friend and I would doindependent study, like how to usePhotoshop and Macromedia Director – heh,that was pretty horrible – but we learned alot from that. And when I was working atthe Web design firm, I wasn’t a designer. Igot the low-person-on-the-totem-pole positiondoing production art. So I did learn howto make Web pages and how to make graphicsfor online projects. And then in ’98,Flash came on the scene, and my boss waslike, ‘OK, you’re gonna be the person incharge of learningFlash.’ And that wasbefore it was program-heavy.And Ilove that, and that’swhen I got to domore animation –and that’s when Iwent freelance.”And two yearslater, SrinivasanDivya Srinivasan moved back toAustin. Because ofWaking Life. Well, really because of hersister and Waking Life.“My sister had come to visit me,” sheexplains, “and on her flight back to Austin,she ended up talking to somebody who wasan animator on Waking Life. And when shelanded, she called me and was like, ‘Youshould come back now, because they’re stillhiring for Waking Life.’ And I was kind oftired of being in San Francisco. I was not ina great place then, out there, and I was freelanceanyway … so I got back to Austin, andI met with [software designer] Bob Sabistonand started working on Waking Life.” Shelaughs. “It’s funny to me that I had to comeback to Austin to work on animation. I wasalways interested but nervous to take anRTF [radio/television/film] class in college.I was kind of intimidated, because the guyswho were in it always seemed so confident,and I didn’t understand how someone couldbe that confident.”So the Linklater film was a good move?Srinivasan nods. “And my style in WakingLife is so different than the others, it’s morestylized and not realistic. I think my experiencewith the film was perfect – because mystyle showed through. That’s kind of adream, and it doesn’t happen too often inanimation. I wouldn’t have liked to have followedsomeone else’s style guide. And thenBob said I could use his software for otherprojects. And I did a video – my sister and Idid. We shot on 35mm film, but the video wasall stills, for “Record Player Party” by theCrack Pipes. It was the document of a houseparty in December of 2001 in Hyde Park.”In 2004, Srinivasan moved to Chicago.“I was kind of in a rut in Austin. And Iwork from home, so for a change of scene Iwent to Chicago. And it was really good timing,because as I was moving there, I got acall from John Flansburgh of They MightBe Giants. He said, ‘Hey, we’re making achildren’s DVD and wanna know if you’ll doa few videos for us?’ And that was kind of adream, because I’d been wanting to do stufffor kids and wanting to do animation. Andit was surreal to be called by him. I felt likeI couldn’t listen to certain They Might BeGiants songs because I listened to them toomuch in high school. One of my friendswould always be calling their song line inhigh school, Dial-a-Song. I don’t know, itwas just nuts to have him call me. And Ithink that’s how Weird Al saw my stuff, andone thing led to another – in weird ways.”That’s “Weird Al” Yankovic, of course, forwhom Srinivasan did the video of “SkipperDan.” And then, we assume, that led todoing the artwork for Sufjan Stevens’Illinois project?“No, that was because of The New Yorker,”says Srinivasan. “It was real lucky, becauseI hadn’t heard of him, but I got assigned todo an illustration of Sufjan. And then hesaw it. And he was looking for someone todo the artwork for Illinois – he was recordingit around then – and he asked me if I’ddo it. And it was while I was living inChicago, too, so I felt like, ‘Yeah! My littletime in Illinois, I get to work on this album!’... So that was neat. And, from that, I endedup doing the artwork for This AmericanLife, their Greatest Hits, Volume Three.”Srinivasan grins, perhaps just a lumenless brightly than the winter sun. “I’ve beenmeeting so many super-nice people who Ireally admire – people who are so nice thatyou almost feel they’re making fun of you.But they’re not – I don’t think – they justhappen to be really nice people.”And now the artist’s back in Austin – “It’smy home base,” she says – and doing booksfor children.“I like doing the kids’ books,” she says.“And that’s good – because it is what I’m workingon for the next couple of years. OctopusAlone comes out on May 8, and then next yearthere’s another book, and the next year anotherbook. And right now I’m working on an app,a game app for Little Owl’s Night. I’m doingall the artwork and animation and design andall that – and producing it. But first I have tomake the book trailer for Octopus!”It’s an industrious thing, this waking lifeof Srinivasan’s, where getting a phone callfrom Ira Glass while shopping in Targetisn’t part of some crazy dream: It’s justanother episode of business as usual. n
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