The following is an except from the autobiography Lazslo P. Frampton: The Man Who Dreamed About Vaguely Tear-Shaped Swirly Patterns and Some Other Things , written in 1988 and published posthumously last year by Harper Collins Press Subsidiary Press:
I remember that time in my life as though it was only twenty or thirty years ago, despite the fact that it was in reality nearer to fifty years ago. Still riding atop the great success of my now forgotten pattern Eye Vein (inspired loosely by my Schnauzer, Kitchen), I had fallen into the sauce. You see, the Depression showed no signs of a let-up, and since ties were valued more for their tactile friendliness to the derriere than their striking designs, even my greatest triumphs we merely defecated upon. My filial piety reined me to the family business, and thus Ma Frampton’s Savory Haggis (in four varieties) would continue to be the major source of my livelihood for the next few years…
I remember one particular day I was stirring the sauce for the Teriyaki Haggis. The repetitive circles required for even teriyaki were not boring to me, as most people assume, but rather stimulating. I conceived most of my best designs this way, although I was not always able to grasp them and wrangle them onto an appropriate medium. This particular day I spun into a trance, as was common for me as I stirred. But this specific trance was to be one of monumental importance to me, and I daresay the free world. I remember spiral shapes, constantly changing color, swirling in space, dancing, singing, some were fly-fishing. It was like twenty psychedelic Milky Way galaxies doing the Fox Trot (and three fly-fishing), only at the time no one knew what the Milky Way looked like. But I saw it, in my mind. Would I call myself astronomically psychic? Yes, but from a design standpoint. I had no interest in the gadgetry of telescopes, and thus the world had to wait for the Milky Way.
When I came to, I pulled myself out of the sauce and took a hot shower. I did not yet understand the nature of my hallucination, but the vision would stay with me from that day forth and become the source of my fortune and frivolous embellishment of businessmen and dowagers alike…
For more on the life of this fascinating man, pick up a copy of Lazslo P. Frampton: The Man Who Dreamed About Vaguely Tear-Shaped Swirly Patterns and Some Other Things from your local bookstore. Or better yet, get it free from your local library.