Pumpkin King

Tim Burton is kind of amazing. There are times where I think that whatever he has to do with is going to be insane, but now that I got a glimpse into his life I feel like I have a better understanding. I still think he's a little nuts, but in a good way. I went to see his exhibit at LACMA on Saturday and it was incredible. Makes me wish I could draw. I loved the way it was laid out. You start in his early years when he was living in Burbank with his parents feeling alienated and then the exhibit takes you through his time when he was studying at Cal Arts to his time working at Disney and then to his most recent movies and adventures. He has a freaking insane imagination. He draws all of these crazy little creatures with scary teeth, but it's amazing what he can do with these little sketches. He can create such simple drawings with many layers. It's kind of fascinating. He must have some crazy nightmares and he must just draw all the time. I didn't know about half of the little stories and characters he created until the exhibit. The thing that makes me sad though is that all the plaques kept saying how alienated he felt and how he turned to drawings to create his own worlds. Makes me sad that such creativity came out of sadness. There was one sketch of him and his mom sitting at the dinner table and neither one of them looked happy. There was another of his parents just watching TV and it makes me wonder if his childhood with his parents wasn't great. But I guess amazing creativity has to come from somewhere, right? Either way, if you haven't seen it, you definitely have to. It's at LACMA until Oct 31.