An Original: Every Picture Tells a Story

Story and photo by
Kathleen Herd Masser
Mirror contributing writer
  
   There isn’t a baby boomer alive who doesn’t grow just a little bit nostalgic when he or she hears the phrase “See Spot run.” Now, thanks to Montana Avenue retailer Every Picture Tells a Story, whole families can recreate the Dick and Jane experience, between encounters with Charlotte and her web and the often goofy, always enchanting characters of Dr. Seuss.
   The combination art gallery/bookshop first opened in the Fairfax District in 1989 and moved to Beverly Boulevard in 1994. In June 2002, the store relocated to Santa Monica. It was a matter of supply and demand, explains Brein Lopez, the shop’s curator. “So many of our customers had moved from Hollywood to Santa Monica and the Westside.”
   “We like the sense of community on Montana,” he adds, “and we wanted to bring back what we do best. Not just books, but readings, signings and other events.” (In addition to the curator, there is a resident storyteller – Hannah Sloan – who entertains on Wednesdays and Saturdays.)
   Lopez has worked for owner Lois Sarkisian for eight years. “She’s the one who came up with the concept,” he says. “Other places had dabbled in children’s art, but there was no place dedicated to it.”
   In the company’s early days, Sarkisian developed friendships with illustrators like Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are) and Hilary Knight (creator of Eloise). “They just flocked to Lois,” says Lopez. “The shop felt like home to them.”
   It felt like home to patrons, as well. “Lois found people who were responding, not as collectors,” Lopez notes, “but in a sentimental, emotional way. This artwork brings back memories from time we spent with a parent, or grandparent.”
   “There’s no such thing as a standard customer,” he continues. “We get art students and collectors, and people who would never walk into an art gallery, but would go into a bookstore.”
   Talking with Lopez, you come to understand the difference between sales clerk and curator. While each of the pictures certainly tells a story, Lopez has a repertoire of anecdotes that you won’t find on a book jacket.
   Ask him about Hobbits and he’ll give you the Hildebrandt brothers, objects of a huge cult following that began in the 1970s when they illustrated the Tolkein calendars.
   “They are the master fantasy illustrators,” Lopez says. Identical twins, the brothers take the twinship routine of finishing each other’s sentences to another dimension, painting as one, side by side, with their inks and brushes between them. Now 64 years old, the siblings have used this technique since childhood.
   A query about author-illustrator David Shannon elicits more details. When Shannon – creator of the best-selling David books – was five years old, his mother would send him to his room when he misbehaved. To pass the time, Shannon drew pictures depicting whatever escapade had landed him in lockup. Though the images varied, each page carried the same caption – “No, David” – because these were the only two words he could spell. The youngster presented the drawings to his mother, who stapled them together and set them aside.
   Shannon grew up to become a successful illustrator and the drawings were long forgotten. But 10 years into his career, his mom came across the sketches and returned them to her son. They became the basis for his wildly popular book titled (what else?) No, David.
   Lopez particularly likes the David stories because of what they’re not. “They haven’t been made into movies or television shows. There are no cartoons, no merchandising. But the kids just love them.”
   Every Picture doesn’t worry about competition from big chain stores or franchises. “There’s no other place like it,” says Lopez. “The best part of my job is hearing all the people who come in saying ‘this is my favorite store.’”
   The shop’s success is undoubtedly tied to its diversity: there’s something for every taste, every age, and in every price range.
   There are Garth Williams lithographs (Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little), sketches by Tim Burton, and an assortment of rare, original drawings by Theodor Geisel (“Dr. Seuss”) and Charles Schulz (Peanuts).
   There are also wonderful vintage pieces, including Wesley Dennis horses and Mother Goose illustrations from Sarah Noble-Ives, some in color, most in black and white. (Lopez explains, “Many of the early illustration artists were limited to just black and white. The color separation process was much more difficult and costly than it is today.”)
   Vintage prints and numbered lithographs generally run between $150 and $500. The rarest piece in the shop is a watercolor-and-ink, Calvin & Hobbes sketch by Bill Waterson, priced at $26,000. Among the most expensive are an original Walt Disney color sketch of Mickey Mouse ($45,000) and original illustrations from Lord of the Rings (up to $150,000).
   Paperback reproductions of Dick and Jane books are a mere $3.99.
   There is no question that these illustrations strike an emotional chord with visitors to the shop, tugging them back – whether four years or forty – into childhood, as demonstrated by a recent episode.
   The Angel of Montana Avenue, as local shopkeepers call her, is a homeless woman who has roamed the neighborhood for years. She never speaks, and if you try to hand her more than a dollar, she’ll return the difference. But when Lopez changed the window display a couple of weeks ago, the woman came into the store and protested, “The mice are gone.” Since then, Lopez has kept a single Rip Squeak book in the window so “Angel” can see it whenever she passes by.
   Revolving exhibits focus on one or two artists and change every couple of weeks. Currently, an entire wall is devoted the work of Gary Kelley, whose work has appeared in Time, Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker. The display includes Kelley’s “Divas Collection,” created for Verve Music Group and honoring Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, and other legendary female singers.
   On December 13, the shop will present its annual Holiday Jam, featuring readings and signings by contemporary authors and illustrators, including Santa Monica resident Jody Uttal, whose Painted Prayers was named best small press book of the year.
   For Lopez, there’s no question that illustration is a legitimate art form. “We love Matisse, we love Renior,” he says, “but nobody’s had the influence of Dr. Seuss.”
   Every Picture Tells a Story is located at 1311-C Montana Avenue. Phone: (310) 451-2700, website www.everypicture. com.