Laura Tyler – I am curious about Aoki, the international art star and ex-girlfriend in This Is Where We Live. She is something of an extreme character. She’s flamboyant, charismatic and uncompromising. I experienced her as an archetype. Can you share with my readers something about her making?

Janelle Brown – I conceived Aoki as an amalgamation of many people I had met over the years, in assorted creative industries: Flamboyant narcissists tend to float through the art and music worlds, people who use their art as an excuse for bad behavior (whether sex or drugs or cruelty to others). They are wonderful characters to study, very compelling, even when they’re maddening or cruel. And their success just enables that kind of behavior.

I also wanted to draw a character who would stand in contrast to Jeremy and Claudia, someone who had managed to “make it big” as an artist without making any apparent compromises, and someone who justified her narcissism and selfishness as being true to her art. Someone who doesn’t know the meaning of compromise. Frankly, I was fascinated by Aoki; She is possibly the most awful of all the characters I’ve written, in her destructive power, but also one of the purest. She knows exactly what she is doing to the people around her and yet feels no guilt or regret about her behavior.

LT – Have you been following the “happiness” story that’s unfolded on the culture blogs these past few weeks? I found myself wondering… What would Aoki think?

JB – Yes, I’ve been following the “happiness” debate – it’s very interesting reading. I don’t think Aoki would think much of any self-sacrificing parenthood at all. Then again, she could afford a live-in nanny.

Janelle Brown – Well, being a novelist who is married to a filmmaker, this is definitely a subject that hits close to home. But it’s also, I think, one of the conundrums that’s been raised by the promise of New Economy: The rise of the Internet promised to give voice to all the artistic urges has ever had, and for a while during the boom years it seemed far likelier that you could make a living off your creative aspirations than it had in years. Anyone who ever imagined themselves a writer or artist or photographer or singer thought they had a shot at finding an audience, and making some money pursuing those “talents.” And then all that was yanked away again by the recession.

In general, I’m fascinated by the idealism of artistry, and the pursuit of the dream of a “creative” life, and how that rubs up against the reality of our shifting economy, plus the need for stability that family life triggers. I’ve seen so many people struggle with this – spending their twenties and early thirties trying to be artists or writers or musicians or filmmakers, only to hit a certain point in their lives when the reality of marriage and kids and mortgages starts to grind away at those dreams. How long do you keep trying? Do you ever give up? Or is the creative life a never-ending negotiation of time versus income versus artistic fulfillment?

Author photo, Janelle Brown

Laura Tyler – When we first meet Janice, protagonist of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, we find her at home listening to the news of her venture capitalist husband’s IPO on the radio. She appears on the cusp of becoming a very wealthy woman. Nothing seems out of reach. She covets a painting, specifically a van Gogh, and “shivers at the thought of what it might let into their home.” Why does Janice covet a painting? And why van Gogh as opposed to any of the other canonized painters?

Janelle Brown – Janice grew up poor in the Midwest, and found herself accidentally pregnant before she graduated from college. As a result of that, she had to let go of her vague fantasies about living a semi-bohemian life Europe in order to be a stay at home mom. Nearly thirty years later, she still imagines herself to be an artistically-minded person — despite knowing very little about art (which is why she fantasizes about a van Gogh as opposed to a more obscure artist) — and longs for the stamp of pedigree that being a patron of the arts would give her. Hence, her fantasies about owning art as opposed to real estate.

As for van Gogh – there is something wild and free about his paintings (he was, after all, somewhat bats) and I liked how this is symbolic of both her longing for escape from her current life, as well as her simultaneous terror about leaving that life altogether. She’s ambivalent about her world, but is always very controlled about all things, and van Gogh represents both the polar opposite of that control and the worst case scenario of when control is lost: You end up slicing your ear off and sending it to a prostitute. You don’t get any further from Janice’s world than that.

Looking for a summer art read? I found one!

This is Where We Live is a smart and gently snarky novel about a young-ish couple trying to hang onto their deflating Los Angeles home on the down side of the real estate bubble. He’s a “famous on college radio” musician with creative block and an art star ex-girlfriend. She’s a Sundance filmmaker whose tender first film tanks at the box office in its first week of release.

Janelle Brown writes about hot-button cultural issues from an upper middle class point of view. Her characters are members of California’s creative class. They’re filmmakers, musicians, writers, artists, investors and their spouses who struggle to balance the comforts and demands of family life with creative aspirations.

I devoured This Is Where We Live in a single day and followed that up with an equally ravenous read of Brown’s first novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. Brown writes beautifully with clarity, humor and compassion. Both her novels are compulsive reads with artistic themes that ride the fine line between popular and literary fiction.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Brown about the role of art and painting in her novels by email. She shared some juicy thoughts. I look forward to sharing them with you later this week.

In the meantime, read more at DoubleX.