LISA
The idea for the story that would become Hex11 began as a vision in Lisa’s brain during her time in art school at Parsons in New York City. It percolated for 15 years, the same amount of time it took her to meet Lynly, drink margaritas and sing songs, and eventually move out to Los Angeles. It was around this time that Lisa and Lynly serendipitously reunited in Venice Beach and on New Year’s Eve 2013, Lynly asked Lisa what she wanted to do with her life and her amazing talents.
The answer was Hex11.
Q&A WITH LISA
Question 1: Where did the idea of Hex11 come from?
HEX11 started with sketches of the characters and a very rough idea of a world of modern magic. The details and wrinkles came from just keeping my eyes and ears open to everything. I read/watch A LOT of science-fiction and fantasy, science news, histories. Sooner or later, the story started to gel and I went into developing the characters and world with more intention. I also started to incorporate pieces of dreams I’d had that seemed to be a natural fit (Agnes is one example). Of course, this all only went so far before it was clear that collaboration was necessary; because the other key thing about crafting a good and relatable story is the perspective and ideas other people with other influences can offer.
Question 2: What are your biggest artistic influences?
My child mind ate up movies like The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story, The Secret of NIMH, Sleeping Beauty, and The Little Mermaid. All of these spoke to my unconscious desire to make “ugly” things beautiful and vice versa. As I got older, my brain continued to spark when exposed to the surreal: Max Ernst, Frida Kahlo, David Lynch… oh, I only just found out about Remedios Varo and wow! I’ve always loved the Golden Agers, too: Kay Nielsen, Arthur Rackham, Aubrey Beardsley, etc. I could go on too long with this list, so I’ll stop here.