Carson Ellis

An illustration of a comet from one of Carson Ellis' notebooks.

Jim Carmin, the special collections librarian at the Multnomah County Library, heard the Decemberists' song "California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade" and figured Colin Meloy might have a soft spot for the library.

"I figured I had paid my debt to society," Meloy sings, "by paying my fines at the Multnomah County Library."

Carmin was right.

"We love the library," said Carson Ellis, Meloy's wife and collaborator on "The Wildwood Chronicles," a series of fantasy books set in a fictional version of Forest Park. Meloy is the author and Ellis is the illustrator , and she's done much of the art for the Decemberists since Meloy started the band in 2001. With "Wildwood Imperium," the third book in the series, just out, Carmin thought it would be a good time to ask Meloy and Ellis if they were interested in participating in an exhibition of material from the books and the Decemberists.

They were interested, all right. A visit to Ellis' studio resulted in an amazing variety of material for "Inside Wildwood: Colin Meloy, Carson Ellis, with a little Decemberists thrown in ...." There's lots of original art from all three "Wildwood" books, a beautiful painting of Arch Cape in one of Ellis' notebooks, art from "Her Majesty the Decemberists," concert posters from Radio City Music Hall and Edgefield, an acoustic guitar played by Meloy, beautiful birth announcements for their children designed by Ellis, a red-and-white striped jacket Meloy used to wear onstage, and all sorts of books, albums and ephemera.

The exhibition will be up until April 5 at the Multnomah County Central Library. Ellis answered a few questions about show:

The Oregonian: What did you choose for the exhibition?

Ellis: There's a pretty wide range of stuff from when the band started in 2001 all the way up to color art from the most recent Wildwood book, which just came out last week. There might even be stuff from college. We went to college together in Montana and collaborated on some stuff there.

Did you have fun pulling it together?

Yeah, I did (laughs). It was something that we'd been talking about for two years, maybe even more. We kept pushing the date forward because Colin and I get so busy and scatterbrained. When it finally came down to picking art out for it I hadn't given it that much thought. Jim just came over to my studio and I started pulling out everything I could think of to show him. I sent him away with boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff, only a fraction of which he'll show because I gave him hundreds of pieces of art (laughs).

It was really fun. It was nice to sort of look back through all the things that we've done together over the years and see the progress that I feel like we've made as artists.

Looking at something you did 10 years ago and something you did last year, can you see a progression?

Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. I feel like I'm a better artist now. I look at the stuff from 10 years ago and see that I didn't really know what I was doing and I wasn't a professional illustrator, but there's a kind of joy and naivete. So much of what I was doing 10 years ago, especially with Colin for the Decemberists, was purely a labor of love. I loved doing it because it was fun and I loved the band.

My relationship to my artistic output has changed so much since then – it's a job and I have a really rigorous work schedule and I go out to my studio and work and work and I love it so much. I feel like I'm a better artist than I was 10 years ago but I think there's a lot to be said for the joy of making art because you love to.

Do you think you're better technically and artistically?

I think I am technically a better artist. I know how to use my medium better than I did back then. Ten years ago I was doing a lot of stuff in pen and ink but I was just learning to use pen and ink so it's a little more awkward. Now it's a lot more confident. I also think I'm a much more mature artist. Back then it was very much the art of a person in their mid-20s and now it's the art of a person in her mid-30s, going on 40.

I think my art is just more sophisticated now. The way I approach it technically and just thematically. I look back and think I wish I could go back and create art without overthinking it.

Do you think you have a recognizable style?

I think I do. I'm told I do. But even that has changed so much. I don't know if the art I was making when I was starting out looks that much like the art I'm making now but I think there's a through-line that ties it all together.

What do you think that through-line is?

When people draw a lot they do develop a certain style of drawing. Maybe when you draw a tree you always draw the leaves on a tree and maybe you like to draw people in profile, like I do. Little things like that, a little piece that you pick up and stick with when you create an image.

I actually try to break a lot of those conventions, I actively try to break them because I feel like I do get stuck in these ruts where I draw trees the same way. Those are the sort of things that are recognizable going back to the art I did when I was a kid, little preferences that make my drawing style what it is.

How did you get started?

I was a kid that loved to draw constantly. My mom just sent me all my sketchbooks from when I was a kid and I was looking through them and marveling at how much I drew and how that's been the one consistent thing since I was little. I knew I wanted to be a book illustrator because that's what I was drawn to art-wise as a teenager. I didn't go to college for illustration because I went to the University of Montana, just because I wanted to go there, so I went there and got a painting degree.

I spent awhile after college working as a painter ... well, working as a cocktail waitress but also painting and trying to sell paintings. I was feeling like I wanted to be an illustrator but wasn't really sure how to go about it because I hadn't studied it and wasn't sure how people got those kind of jobs. For awhile I just worked in bars and was a painter. I started collaborating with Colin when I first moved to Portland in 2001. We just doing a lot of Decemberists' stuff and I don't think a lot of people were seeing it but as the band got more popular it started getting out there more and I started getting calls from art directors asking me to do different things. My first jobs came exclusively from people who'd seen my stuff on Decemberists' albums.

I started doing more and more work and finally a literary agent called me and asked me if I wanted to work in kid's books and I said yes, I do, that's what I've always wanted to do. I've been doing mostly kid's book illustration ever since and of course Decemberists' stuff.

Could you explain how you get inspired to create art for the Decemberists? Is it a case of them creating the music and at some point you hear it and do the art?

Yeah, that's pretty close, although Colin plays a much bigger part in it. For a guy who's not a visual artist he has very strong opinions about visual art and he knows a lot about it. He's also a student of album art and knows which albums he loves and often he's got something he's visually referencing when we're brainstorming about possible album art.

He writes the songs and demos them and I listen to them very early on and hear them as they're being worked on, often before the band hears them. By the time they're at the recording stage I know them really well. It's like they're in my head and they've been there for a long time. Usually by that time Colin and I have talked a lot about potential album art ideas. By the time they're in the studio we've already talked about a lot of ideas and then we work more like a traditional illustrator/art director kind of relationship where Colin will look at the sketches and say "I like that, but what if we did this instead?" or whatever. We go back and forth until we have something we both like.

Have there been instances where you do something that influences the music?

I doubt it, but I think my feedback does influence the music. I am lucky to be the first person who hears most of the songs and I have opinions that I share. Sometimes that has an effect on how the finished song ends up sounding and sometimes my opinions are ignored (laughs), depending on how useful they are, I guess. But I don't think my visual art has that much to do with the music.

Colin and I are always collaborating and always interested in things, sometimes at the same time, and they become a part of the collective consciousness of our house.

What about when you're working on the Wildwood books?

It's much more of a true collaboration. He's the author, I'm the illustrator, and we work in a more traditional way where I read what he's written and develop ideas based on that. I know what my role is and I really enjoy working on the illustrations for the books.

Did you develop the plots and characters together?

We did, especially on the first book, which is set in our version of Forest Park, right behind where we lived at the time. We spent a lot of time walking in the park and talking about the idea for the book. For a long time, the only thing that was settled on was that it would be the setting for the book. Once the story really got rolling, Colin has taken over and put everything together, although we still talk it out.

Event: Meloy and Ellis will attend a reception and book signing at 4 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Multnomah County Library, 801 S.W. 10th Ave.

-- Jeff Baker