Kurt Vonnegut Drawings

Seven years after Kurt Vonnegut's death, his daughter Nanette Vonnegut is publishing a collection of 145 drawings that her father created in the 1980s. Many people are familiar with Vonnegut's work as a writer — he is the author of Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions among others, but his career as an artist has been largely overlooked.

"Artwork is very different from writing, it was a torture for him to actually sit down and write. But he did it, he was really disciplined. And then artwork was really freeing, and physical and I think he really had fun with the artwork. I don’t think he would ever say he had fun writing," she told Mashable.

His collection of drawings is playful, abstract and a continuation of the graphics that show up in some of his written works. Mashable talked with Nanette Vonnegut about what it was like to grow up with Kurt Vonnegut as a father, why her father drew and how it helped him cope with post-traumatic stress disorder from World War II. The book, titled Kurt Vonnegut Drawings will be released on May 13, and can be preordered on Amazon.

Q&A with Nanette Vonnegut

Mashable: If you received your father’s doodles back in the 90s, why are you choosing to publish them now?

Vonnegut: I hid them away, because I just didn’t know what to do with them. And, I made a joke in the introduction that he should stay in his writing corner where he belongs — maybe I was being competitive, but in some ways he wasn’t taking himself seriously either. I just wasn’t ready to deal with them until fairly recently I think. After he died it was too hard to look at them and then my mind was somehow clear enough. It’s a mystery why we’re ready for what we’re ready for, when you’ve lost somebody, or ready for anything in life — it’s just a process of feeling clear. Feeling clarity. Seeing his artwork wasn’t a surprise for me, because he was always doing it when I grew up, so when people say "wow this is some secret corner of Kurt Vonnegut" it isn’t for me. He was always very creative.

You take your parents for granted when you’re growing up, because you have nothing to compare them to. So he would be in the kitchen putting together a massive sculpture, you know, and it was just another day in the life haha. He was always active with his hands, so these drawings didn’t surprise me. I was just thinking today, why did he send them to me? I really don’t know, except that he wanted to make room in his house. Who knows? They just came, and he was anxious to know that I had gotten them, but he didn’t say "hang on to these". I think he was just storing them with me, to keep them safe. He knew they would be safe.

So did you never asked him why he sent them to you?

Umm no haha. It was kind of a blur back then, there’s always drama in our family. I thanked him, it meant a lot to me. But no, my memory is very foggy and it wasn’t really that big of a deal.

You mentioned at the beginning that your father didn’t take himself very seriously with the doodling. Do you have any idea why that is? Did he ever show his artwork anywhere and get any negative feedback?

Well he showed his work with Margo Feiden in 1980, and she was very excited about his work. He did have lots of support from friends. But, the older I get the more I look into the family history, where he came from and his roots in Indianapolis. They were all very high achievers, his grandfather was an architect and his father was an architect, and these stories just sifted down. I think the standards were just so high that you had to be great at a lot of things. I think he was hard on himself, and sometimes hard on his family members.

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So how was it growing up for you in such an artistic family? I’m sure the standards and expectations were pretty high for you once you showed an artistic inclination.

Yeah, I’m the youngest of a very impressive bunch of people. They’re not all artists but they’re all gifted one way or another. Super smart, but being funny was the top of the list of something to aim for. His [Kurt's] brother was a scientific genius, and maybe I looked at him [my uncle] and thought I could never be like my family. I don’t know, but maybe now at 60 I’m beginning to blossom haha. When I went away to college and I separated out from the family and found my talent — I think talent does run in the family, and I think the ability to draw might even be genetic. So it was always there, I was always watching it. My sister was always drawing, my best friend was always drawing. And what was it like? I didn’t know anything else. When I look back on it now, I think "whoa, that was an extraordinary moment". It’s like, 15 years of my life really was that family unit. That’s not very long, but it was a really magical time. And coming of age in the 60s was really something too. Our house was a magnet for people to come by, not only just to see my father, but my mother was a beautiful person and people loved to be around her. It was just a fun house I’ll tell you that. It wasn’t high intellect, it was massive fun, and great music playing all the time. My father making an appearance every now and then, but really he was trying to get his work done.

In the intro to the book you mentioned that you see the influence of your grandfather and father in your work, how do you acknowledge and honor that influence, but also carve your own path as an artist?

We don’t have a choice sometimes, it’s kind of a realization. That you’re following some deep thing that you don’t even know that you’re in. Like I said in the introduction, I went to my grandfather’s house and I saw these design elements that I saw in my father’s doodles. He put our handprints in cement by the door. They’re beautiful details, and we’re impressed at a very young age by these things. I feel lucky, I feel like I’ve been impressed with very very good things, with excellent sensibilities from both of my parents.

I read the interview that you did with The Rumpus, and how you thought your dad wrote as a way to deal with PTSD from World War II. Do you think that’s also why he also drew or did it serve a different function for him? Also, do you think drawing has a different therapeutic value from writing?

He was the one who said that art saves people lives, he never said it saved his life. But, I do remember sitting next to him and he said people work out their neuroses in writing. Of course, he’s always referred to himself. For him to finally be able to tell his story through Slaughterhouse-Five was a massive achievement of working through that, being the prime example of him working through something that was taking him years and years to try to tell it. He pulled off something that, to me, was just groundbreaking. And it’s an illustration of PTSD, that book. Living with him, he was a moving force, moving through, working through something, you just knew it, you felt it. He couldn’t sit still for very long. He was okay with people, but there was a limited amount of time he could be with them and then he had to get on with something else. He was doing the very best he could be doing with the amount of trauma that I think he had in him.

Artwork is very different from writing, it was a torture for him to actually sit down and write. But he did it, he was really disciplined. And then artwork was really freeing, and physical, and I think he really had fun with the artwork. I don’t think he would ever say he had fun writing.

Your favorite self-portrait that your father did was the one with the one continuous, squiggly line, why was it your favorite?

I just thought it was a brilliant production. It took me awhile to really look at it and see that it was just one continuous line. I mean, I’m competitive, I’m an artist and I can look at that and say "jeeze, that’s really a wonderful piece of artwork" and I don’t know if I could pull it off. Keeping it in one line, and then the charm of him putting a flower in it, and then his signature also. I just thought it was so playful, and so brilliant. I could see he had fun with it, and he must have been so pleased with himself at the end of that.