THE OBSESSION WITH TOLSTOY comes from Fippypopulosa’s intense study of the Tolstoy novels War & Peace, The Cossacks and Anna Karenina. Although it may at first seem strange to hear a painter describe a writer as a source of deep inspiration, it is a common experience that the arts cross-pollinate. Composers found themselves being inspired by poetry, novelists found themselves inspired by a French cookie called a Madeleine, painters found inspiration in novels.
IN A CAREER spanning twenty-five years, Fippypopulosa has written many novels (under a different name), painted dozens of canvases and drawn inspiration from painters as diverse as Klee, Da Vincii, Picasso and Van Gogh. In the world of prose, Fippypopulosa has derived inspiration from Hemingway, Turgenev, Dickens, Flannery O’Conner and Jane Smiley.