Brian Froud – Quotes

I paint the spirit

I paint the spirit and soul of what I see. Brian Froud

In college, I became interested in folk tales and fairy tales. Gradually I became more and more interested in the underlying meaning of it all and the possibility of the reality of real fairies. Brian Froud

Naming a fairy is

Naming a fairy is notoriously difficult, because they don’t particularly like to be named. There are so many of them, and humans have always wanted to categorize them. In that way, we think we can have more control over them. Brian Froud

I went and studied

I went and studied graphic design, because it seemed to me that advertising is more honest – the image actually has a function. But once I started on that, I realized that was really boring. Brian Froud

It seems to me

It seems to me that art has lost its connection to spirit. Brian Froud

I had a job

I had a job as an illustrator, and I wanted to change the direction of my work. I moved to the country, and immediately I started to paint fairies and trolls. Brian Froud

It was ironic that

It was ironic that there I was finally painting the pictures I’d always wanted to paint and feeling very much at home in the countryside, and I ended up working in New York City, which is definitely the archetypal city. Brian Froud

It was hard for

It was hard for me to move forward, because I take responsibility for what I introduce into the world through my paintings. So to actually introduce something evil or bad was quite hard for me. Brian Froud

Nobody wanted to publish

Nobody wanted to publish a book about fairies; they said people wouldn’t be interested. Luckily, I discovered Lady Cottington and her pressed fairies, which revived a huge amount of interest in fairies, so I could go ahead and do the book I wanted to do. Brian Froud

I live in a

I live in a house that’s incredibly old, and it’s typical that part of it is slightly in the ground. It’s very earthed. It’s almost like living in a hobbit house. Brian Froud