Author/artist’s new book revisits ’80s
Sally Nixon’s ‘Let’s Go to the Mall’ her newest seek-and-find book
Come with us now on a journey back in time … to an era when MTV played music videos all day and all night, when station wagons and Chrysler K cars prowled the streets, when perms were teased to the heavens and Jheri curls glistened.
Yes, radical dudes and collar-popping preps, we are talking about the ’80s, and our gateway to that era of leg warmers and “Frankie Say Relax” T-shirts is “Let’s Go to the Mall: An ’80s Seek-and-Find,” the gnarly new book from artist Sally Nixon that will be released Tuesday from San Francisco-based Chronicle Books.
The book’s narrative follows a high school student and her younger sister as they navigate a weekend alone while their mother is away on a business trip. Each page sends the reader on a quest for items like cans of new “Tad” soda, VCRs, newspapers and copies of “TV Mag.”
Nixon’s clever, information-packed drawings take readers to the titular mall as well as a school courtyard, a diner, a skating rink and other locations, which are all rendered with keenly observed, period-appropriate designs — from the dark wood paneling and fuzzy carpet of living rooms and bedrooms to rows of VHS tapes in a video store and characters clad in acid-washed denim.
Not bad for someone who wasn’t even born until 1989.
Nixon, 34, grew up in Pine Bluff and has been drawing for as long as she can remember.
“I was always drawing,” she says. “I was a pretty quiet kid. I wasn’t into sports or anything like that, but if you give me a pencil and some paper I’m good. It’s my preferred way of communicating with people, through my art.”
She earned a degree in illustration and studio art from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Her illustration clients have included Lenny Letter, the now-defunct online newsletter started by Lena Dunham; Arkansas arts magazine The Idle Class and literary magazine Neon, among others. She also has an Etsy shop — sallustration.etsy.com — where she sells prints.
“Let’s Go to the Mall” is Nixon’s second book. The first, “Houseplants and Hot Sauce: A Seek-and-Find Book for Grown-Ups,” came out in 2017.
“I was more focused on female empowerment in that book,” she says. “It was very female-centric. I wanted this one to be a little more kid-friendly. There aren’t as many Jell-O shots.”
Nixon has four older sisters and picked up on a lot of ’80s pop culture from them.
“A lot of the movies and TV I watched were what my sisters watched,” she says.
“Matlock,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Moonlighting” were often on the TV in the background as she worked on the new book.
“I love ’80s TV,” she says. Google and Pintrest also helped in her research.
“I was very particular about the furnishings. I tried to put myself in the main character’s shoes. She’s from a family who might not have the latest ’80s furniture. They probably have leftovers from the ’70s, so there are these ’70s touches in there.”
Another thing that Nixon paid close attention to are the figures that populate her pages. The whole point of a seek-and-find book is to have the reader look closely at its images, and Nixon has created a sprawling world with distinct characters; not just the main characters but figures in large crowds, right down to the woman trying on shoes at the mall or the busboy cleaning tables at the diner.
“I want everyone to be different,” she says. “I want each person to look like an individual that has a backstory … . I love ‘Where’s Waldo’ because all of the people are different and that’s what I wanted to do with my book.”
She works with pen and marker and she will make adjustments in Photoshop and some pages, especially those with large crowds, can take weeks to finish. The new book took about nine months to draw, she says.
“I love super-detailed artwork,” she says. “I’ve always been drawn to images with lots of detail and stuff going on. I love when people go back and see my artwork and see something new and different.”
When choosing items to be sought and found on a page, she sometimes knows what they are before she begins and other times figures it out as the page develops. “I have a list I start with. As I’m drawing, if something doesn’t make sense or if I think of something better I will adjust the list.”
As for why she chose to depict the ’80s, Nixon notes that her work has always had a tinge of nostalgia.
“The ’80s and ’90s are very nostalgic for me,” she says. “I think that’s what people like about my work; it’s relatable and familiar.”
“Let’s Go to the Mall” has been finished for almost a year, and Nixon is eager for readers to seek and find it.
“The waiting has been hard. I’m excited for it to be out there. As an artist you want to show people your work; that’s the fun part.”