Thursday, May 25, 2017

Star Wars - The 40th Anniversary


The movie now known as Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope, turns forty years old today. Back when I saw it in 1977, it was just Star Wars. It feels like we were just celebrating it's 30th Anniversary, something I actually did with a month long examination of the film which you can scroll back through by visiting my posts from May, 2007.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

The Grim Gallery Turns Six



My companion blog, The Grim Gallery, turns six years old today. If you have any interest in monsters, be sure to check it out.

Saturday, May 06, 2017

Derry, Maine - 1957



For the Stephen King show, now on exhibit at Gallery 1988 (West), I told myself I wasn't going to do anything related to It. My decision had nothing to do with my feelings for the book (it's one of my favorite King novels), but because I figured Pennywise would be getting a lot of exposure in the show. However, when this idea occurred to me I had to do it.

The tower in the background, which features prominently in the novel, is based on the Thomas Hill Standpipe in Bangor, ME, which is the actual bit of architecture that King used for the Drrry standpipe in the book. In fact, if you visit the actual site, you'll find that the entire location is pretty exact to how it's described. I took liberties with the setting though.

The boy in the piece is actually based on a photograph of Stephen King as a boy and seemed like the perfect trusting, innocent little boy unaware of the horrors of the world (or those he'd later create).

I did try to give Pennywise the silver clown suit he wears in the book, but it just didn't look right. I ended up going with dark blue because the blue connected to the boy's clothes, only much darker, giving them a relationship. I don't think I need to go into any of the other symbolism in the image. It isn't subtle. I'm actually really happy with how this one turned out.


Thursday, May 04, 2017

I Am the Doorway




The Stephen King show opens at Gallery 1988 (West) tomorrow night. I have two pieces in the show, including "I Am The Doorway" shown above.

My piece is 3-D cut paper and obviously based on the initial paperback cover of Night Shift with art by Don Brautigam (shown below with it's die cut outer cover).





Brautigam (1946-2008) created the covers for the paperback versions of some of King's earliest books, including The Stand, Firestarter, The Dead Zone, Different Seasons, and Cujo (as well as numerous other books and well known record album covers as can be seen here.) Even before I'd ever read a Stephen King book I was drawn to the covers. As far as I'm concerned none of the covers of subsequent editions has come close to recreating that sense of the uncanny that Brautigam's covers brought to King's works.


The covers for Night Shift and The Stand resonated with me the most, and I'd initially planned to recreate both of them, but time and life had other intentions.