Goblins, dragons and trolls have taken over the Norman Rockwell Museum. Journey into the newest exhibit at the museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Tony DiTerlizzi made his career in illustrating entire fantasy worlds.
Widely-known for his book series The Spiderwick Chronicles, DiTerlizzi’s imagination is showcased in other award-winning books, including Ted, The Spider and the Fly, The Story of Diva and Flea, and The WondLa Trilogy, and in games such as Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons.
Unfamiliar with fantasy creatures? Think Netflix’s Stranger Things or the popular book and film series Lord of the Rings.
“You will encounter many things,” Stephanie Plunkett says. “From more than 200 examples of Tony’s exceptional artwork.”
Stephanie Plunkett is the museum’s Deputy Director.
“To an audio visual tour designed by my colleague Rich Bradway right over there. To several fascinating interactives – a floating fairy cloud, which was Tony’s invention. And a field guide to Tony’s characters,” Plunkett says.
“It’s kind of a cross-section of my life up to this point,” DiTerlizzi says. “This year marks 25 years that I have been published.”
Three rooms devoted to DiTerlizzi’s work include images of elves armed with bows, dwarves swinging axes and dragons breathing fire juxtaposed with Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms.
“And this cobalt in the front is holding Dragon Mountain, and Dragon Mountain was the first Dungeons and Dragons game I illustrated when I began to work for TSR in 1992, and it goes all the way up through my history to Tinsel, which is a Christmas fairy who is standing on top of my easel which is the picture book I am working on right now,” DiTerlizzi says.
Curator Jesse Kowalski pokes fun at the crude, but sheer talent shown in a folder containing DiTerlizzi’s first artwork when he was 12 years-old.
“It’s called “The New Realm – It’s Nature and Science-Fiction combined. You are Exploring GONDWANALAND,” Kowalski says.
“GONDWANALAND,” DiTerlizzi interrupts with a sinister voice.
“Oh, yeah… So,” Kowalski agrees sarcastically. “I think you were a little, little concerned about including some of these things.”
“Yeah, cause they are horrible. They’re terribly drawn,” DiTerlizzi says. “I am thinking that even with the finished stuff because you’re like we are going to hang a Rockwell next to that. And I am like I don’t know if you should do that. It’s really going to show...”
Although an avid comic book reader, Star Wars addict and cartoon lover, DiTerlizzi says a lot of his inspiration came from Norman Rockwell.
“Growing up looking at Norman Rockwell, I was – that era before I was alive of the 50s, the 40s and the even early 60s seemed so amazing, seem so fun to be alive, to be a kid based on these images that Rockwell depicted,” DiTerlizzi says. “And so we really went on this once upon a time it was 1950, or once upon a time it was 1960 because that felt both as immediate and as far away to me as an adult, and so that’s why these stories take place in this time. They are very much heavily reliant on the inspiration of Rockwell.”
DiTerlizzi claims it’s the first time Dungeons and Dragons art has been displayed in a museum. “NEVER ABANDON IMAGINATION: The Fantastical Art of Tony DiTerlizzi Exhibition” is on display until May 28th.
Music in this piece includes work composed by James Horner for The Spiderwick Chronicles provided to WAMC by the Norman Rockwell Museum.
