@ Follow my Visual arts blog on Amazing Stories: [link]
* Read my monthly newsletter: [link]
& Have a listen to my music: [link]  ¢ you can download it here: [link]
$ Buy stuff from my online shop: [link]  
% Find me on Ebay: [link]
# Like my Facebook page: [link]

Ah yes! My website. [link] *

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So yeah, I need cash. Who doesn't? Still, I am now staring down the barrel of the fact that I have just finished my last paid-for web design project, and a replacement has not turned up -- and nor have I a day job, or a well earning husband, or significant income from capital investment. So my projected income for the next month is something like $60 (that's NZ $$) - unless I can at least manage to sell some of my stuff. By *stuff*, read: artwork, prints, music cds, sheet music, and I have also put one of my harps on the market, though this may be less interesting to the lot of you. More details here: [link]

What I do have, is stacks upon stacks of artwork: sketches and watercolours mostly, many of them done as a way of improving, but a lot of them of perfectly sellable quality. SO what I plan to do is is that from now on, each month I will select a few items from that stack, and put them up on Ebay. Here: [link]

The artworks will only be available for one month, after that I will change the selection. If they don't sell, they will go on another stack, which I haven't quite decided what to do with yet, perhaps I will list them again eventually once I have gone through everything, but that is likely to take a while. I have, I mean, STACKS. So if you are keen on any particular piece, do not hesitate, grab it while it is available. The prices will be in the affordable range.

I also continue to improve myself by continuing to create things in that vein. Just last week, I've busied myself painting some flowers from my garden (my beautiful organic backyard veggie garden cum future orchard - so I am saving the planet at the same time, and *you can own a piece of it* while at the same time enabling me to continue doing what I do):



They're A5 size, on good quality Canson Montval (that *is* good quality) watercolour paper, done with my new Schmincke watercolours which I brought over from Germany. So they'll last a bit. The pieces will be mounted on matte board, but not framed. The starting price I have listed them for is US$ 19.99, there is a Buy Now for US$24.99. Shipping is $5. So for the price you might otherwise pay for a print, you can own a full fledged one-of-a-kind original!

Happy bidding, and see you next month!

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fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

I would like to proudly introduce a new project I am taking part in: Amazing Stories! [link]

Those of you who are really into Science Fiction, might think the name rings familiar: yes, it is a cyber age revival of the cult science fiction magazine, founded all the way back in 1926 by Hugo Gernsback - the first dedicated Science Fiction magazine ever!

Wikipedia tells me that "Gernsback's initial approach was to blend instruction with entertainment; he believed science fiction could educate readers. His audience rapidly showed a preference for implausible adventures, however, and the movement away from Gernsback's idealism accelerated when the magazine changed hands in 1929. Despite this, Gernsback had an enormous impact on the field: the creation of a specialist magazine for science fiction spawned an entire genre publishing industry. The letter columns in Amazing, where fans could make contact with each other, led to the formation of science fiction fandom, which in turn had a strong influence on the development of the field. Writers whose first story was published in the magazine include Isaac Asimov, Howard Fast, Ursula K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, and Thomas M. Disch." [link]

So now the magazine has reincarnated itself as a blogging and social networking website - and I'm one of the blog team! Check out my author page here: [link]

My blog will be dedicated to visual arts - I plan to continue the series of features I have been doing on my own newsletter, in this new fancy format where they will reach a much larger audience - and more often! My blog is scheduled every two weeks. The inaugural blog post is here! [link]

Follows the official media release:

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AMAZING STORIES are just one click away! [link]

The Experimenter Publishing Company is pleased to announce the  reintroduction of the world's most recognizable science fiction magazine – AMAZING STORIES!

Following the completion of a successful Beta Test begun on January 2nd, 2013, Amazing Stories is now open to the public.  Fans of science fiction, fantasy, and horror are invited to join and encouraged to participate in helping to bring back a cherished icon of the field.

For the past several weeks nearly sixty fans, authors, artists, editors and bloggers have been producing articles on your favorite subjects – the literature of SF/F/H, its presentations in media such as television, film, poetry, literature, games, comics and much more.

All contents of Amazing Stories are free to the general public.  Membership is also free – and entitles members to participate in the discussion, share information and engage in many other familiar social networking activities.

Membership also represents a stake in helping Amazing Stories return to publication.  The more members the site acquires, the faster Amazing Stories can become a paying market for short fiction.

Every genre fan now has a chance to help support the creation of a new market for the stories, artwork and articles they all love so much.

To visit the site and obtain your free membership, go to AMAZING STORIES, and don't forget to invite your friends too!

This reincarnation of Amazing Stories could not have happened without the generous support of Woodall Design LLC and the members of the Amazing Stories Blog Team:

Cenobyte, Karen G. Anderson, Mike Brotherton, Ricky L. Brown, Michael A. Burstein, Catherine Coker, Johne Cook, Paul Cook, Gary Dalkin, Jane Frank, Adria K. Fraser,  Jim Freund, Fran Friel, Adam Gaffen, Chris Garcia, Chris Gerwel, Tommy Hancock, Liz Henderson, Samantha Henry, M.D. Jackson, Monique Jacob, Geoffrey James, J. Jay Jones, Daniel M. Kimmel, Peggy Kolm, Justin Landon, Andrew Liptak, Bob Lock, Melissa Lowery, Barry Malzberg, C. E. Martin, Farrell J. McGovern, Steve Miller, Matt Mitrovich, Aidan Moher, Kevin Murray, Ken Neth, Astrid Nielsch, D. Nicklin-Dunbar, James Palmer, John Purcell, James Rogers, Felicity Savage, Diane Severson, Steve H. Silver, J. Simpson, Douglas Smith, Lesley Smith, Bill Spangler, Duane Spurlock, Michael J. Sullivan, G. W. Thomas, Erin Underwood, Stephan Van Velzen, Cynthia Ward, Michael Webb, Keith West, John M. Whalen, Karlo Yeager, Leah A. Zeldes

For more information about Amazing Stories, please contact the publisher at Experimenter@AmazingStoriesMag.com

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So far, the blogs have been multitudinous and on a high level of erudition/information content/entertainment value, and the discussions (mostly among the blog team) have been lively. Join us there! If you have an interest in the genre, there's no better place to go. And if you don't (yet), chances are you might get hooked!

See you there.

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The December newsletter is now online: [link]

Amazements
* Living in the Wairarapa: Hitting the Beach
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Gifts, Good Works, and Lots of Humans
* Music and Mama Africa
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... and the November newsletter has been online for a good long while: [link]

Arithmetic
* Living on the planet: Of Dragons, Dwarves, and Math to Make Yourself Feel Better
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Nani Mahal ~nai-XaIn
* Pirates, Vampires, and Tall Dark Strangers (pt 6) - the final!!

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about photography: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

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GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


Brothers Grimm cover design:


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

*****************************************************************************************************
My online store: [link] *** My Etsy store: [link]

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It's Thanksgiving in the US. The Christmas season is upon us. And like everyone who sells things online, this time of year is when I sell things online. And I need to sell things online if I want to keep the boat afloat. So this journal entry is not going to be a piece of autobiographical literature, or precious pieces of my hard won life wisdom. It is not a feminist rant nor a musing on the State of the Art. No. It is an unabashed PIMP:

For my online shop: [link] * my Etsy store: [link] * and the prints I have for sale through the DA print service. Which gives you *30% OFF ALL WEEKEND*. How cool is that. I bet everyone is updating their journals just now!

I ask you: ARE YOU LOOKING for some first class unique made in New Zealand exceptional exciting Christmas pressies? ARE YOU MOREOVER A FAN of all things Tolkien and Hobbit and Lord of the Rings?

Then you have come to the right place.

There's this: Middle Earth New Zealand 2013 photo wall calendar: [link]



And just in, is this: Map of New Zealand Film Locations (including Lord of the Rings, and Other movies, such as Narnia series, Last Samurai, The Piano, Whale Rider, etc. etc. ) [link] -- or you can order a print through the DA print store



... and if you just wanted to send a few Christmas cards, with an appropriate wintry seasonal theme (for those of you in Northern climates): try this:
or this

Cards can be ordered through the DA print service, through my website: [link]. or through my Etsy store: [link]

But I don't want to just unabashedly pimp. I would also like to express my gratitude. I've just been and read the official DA Hot Topic about "Saying Thank You", and yes it is a bit soppy, but they also have a point.

I would like to say that I am deeply, profoundly, unspeakably grateful to every single person who has ever bought any of the things I am selling – be it through one of my online stores, or from a stall at a Con or a Christmas market, or through a retailer or gallery. Be it CDs or sheet music, calendars, cards, prints, or - this year for the first time, hurrah! - pieces of original art.

You people make my day. You make my week, you make my month, you make my decade. Because, to me, this type of transaction is not just an exchange of goods for money. It is an affirmation that people like myself, and so many others I know here on DA, who struggle to get their work "out there", to be seen or heard or read among the cacophony of things that are offered to us to spend our money and our time and attention on,  often not by creative individuals, but by organizations who have a massive apparatus of marketing and publicity at their disposal, backed up with insane amounts of money and hired brains  – that people like us can be seen and heard and read, and that we do something worthwhile. And that though it may be the hard and stony road, ultimately it is the more satisfying. I really, truly believe that it makes the world a better place – because there will be less people stuck  all day doing something they hate, for the sake of an illusion of "safety" that does not even really exist any more, in this day and age of mass unemployment and economical crises. People who are so frustrated and unhappy that they pass their frustration and unhappiness on to those around them, making them frustrated and unhappy individuals in turn. It just does not seem like a healthy way to run a society!

And it is an affirmation that it can be done. That we don't have to listen to those who insist that we must have "a job" or even "a steady income" to be worthwhile human beings. A steady income would be nice. I am still ways away from one, or from actually being able to support myself through the work of my hands and brains and ears and eyes. But these days, I can glimpse the possibility of it somewhere on the horizon. And I have never been so happy – no, let's say, so steadily contented with my life, than in the last few years, since I've decided to leave the rat race behind for good, and focus on doing these things properly – to reach that far off goal, or die in the attempt.

So, buy my stuff. You'll keep me from dying in the attempt.

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October newsletter now online: [link]

The Good, the Ugly, and the Beautiful
* Living on the internet: The Good, the Ugly, the Beautiful, and the Plain Weird
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Wai Art
* Pirates, Vampires, and Tall Dark Strangers (pt 5)
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Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about photography: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


Brothers Grimm cover design:


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

So now I am a formally qualified artist! Last week I got a shiny new certificate from the London Art College in the mail, saying "Pass with Distinction in Science Fiction and Fantasy" – which I can now add to my rich and varied collection of formal qualifications. Well, I've only gained a Distinction once before (for my MA, in musicology), so I am a bit stoked.

Some weeks ago, I got my last bit of feedback from my tutor John "The Other" Byrne - who emphasizes that he is not John "The Real Famous" Byrne - but hey, it still sounds good on his student's cvs, doesn't it? He seems - as far as one can tell from communicating via college feedback terminal, and the occasional forum post - an awfully nice guy, and doesn't seem to suffer from the widespread artist syndrome known as "overblown ego" (otherwise he would certainly insist that he is, in fact, John "The Only Real" Byrne.) I was a bit suspicious of the fact that most of his feedback has been extremely flattering – I have been a teacher myself, and I know that the students I flatter and encourage are either the ones who are only making the first steps and need a lot of encouragement -- or the ones who really are so good that there is little to say! I wasn't quite sure which one I was...



But yeah, it's been good stuff, I'm glad I did it though I have been questioning, now and then, the wisdom of investing as much time as I have done in something that is not directly contributing to my currently most urgent problem, i.e. find a way to ensure that I'll be able to pay the bills once my stack of pirate treasure runs out! And when I look at the stack of assignments I have created for this course, there now really is no excuse left to not get going and send my portfolio out to some publishers and agents! Wish me luck.

Here is me on the London Art College student honours list! [link]



In other news, I've got an exhibition of the Earthsea paintings coming up in December, at the new Events Centre in nearby Carterton. It's really quite a nice space for putting on such a thing! Big windows and lots of daylight. The Events Centre also houses the Carterton library, and an auditorium for music and theatre performances, so it's definitely a spot which appeals to my multimedial tendencies! I am currently talking to the people at the library about putting on a reading of the Earthsea books as part of their summer events programme, to tie in with the exhibition. It would be nice to tie in some harp performances as well, but we'll have to see about that - I need to talk to some people next week, but at this juncture, it might just be a bit more hassle than I really want to have.

I have, however, been asked to provide musical entertainment for the TheOneRing.net [link] fan party to celebrate the upcoming premiere of that movie, what's it called again? The one about the hairy footed little people. Yup, this is my first official announcement of the fact. Anyone traveling over here to be there? Come and say hello! Best to pop me an email first.

ANNND last but not least - the 2013 edition of the Middle Earth New Zealand photo calendar is now available. Limited, numbered, signed, and gorgeous, as usual. Don't miss out! [link]

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September newsletter now online: [link]

Gardens
* Living in the Wairarapa: Growing Jobs
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Tiffany Little
* Pirates, Vampires, and Tall Dark Strangers (pt 4)
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


Brothers Grimm cover design:


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

As I am now entering the final phase of my London Art College Science Fiction and Fantasy Art certificate course, the assignments have become a little more ambitious. Earlier this month I submitted a DVD cover draft for a "yet to be made" movie based on The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. I had done a couple of watercolour illustrations for this book a few years ago (one finished, one incomplete), and decided to use them as a basis for my design.



After studying the DVD covers on my shelf at home, I realized that using a single "iconic screen shot" image for the front cover was not the most common approach: most movies on my shelf, especially those in the Science fiction or fantasy genre, sport a collage of portraits of all the main actors, along with big letter announcements of how many oscars the movie has won. Still, I felt that this particular movie required something less crowded, more Zen like as it were, so I created a digital version of the original watercolour painting, and a prominent logo which plays on the "yin and yang" themes of the narrative. I suppose by the time they get to make that movie, fashions will have changed, and they'll design DVD covers like they used to design covers for rock albums, back in the day... here's to hoping.

For the back cover, I was going to need some "movie stills" giving the potential buyer/viewer a visual impression of what the movie was about: some key environments, and portraits of the main actors. The reason for going to the length of thinking up some actors who could convincingly be cast in the main parts, was that I could then use their faces as basis for my illustrations.



That movie, if it was to be made, would be something of a casting nightmare: About half the action is two people having conversations in a tent, or pulling a sledge across an empty ice desert, so you'd need to find two actors who would be sufficiently strong to make and keep that interesting: there is rather an absence of action sequences and explosions to carry the excitement, so it really all hinges on the developing relationship between Estraven and Genli. Then, you'd need to find not just one or two, but an entire cast of people who could be convincingly androgynous. Thirdly, from the description in the book, I imagine the Gethenians as vaguely Inuit-looking in body/face type.

There being rather a dearth of professional film actors who are Inuit, I decided to waive that requirement, after considering, and deciding against, all the main actors from Atanarjuat. Instead, I pilfered my main actors from Doctor Who! Genli was easy: being the only "standard human" male in the movie, I could take my pick, and I thought Noel Clarke had just the right mix of acting talent, male physique, and being good at "bewildered and lost".

The Gethenians might have been actors or actresses, but I decided to go for women, just to bring out the contrast. Nina Sosanya got the part of Faxe the Foreteller mainly on account of being such a convincing boy/castrato in the BBC's Casanova. She looks a bit shifty in the photo I used as basis for my "still", and I figure that in the script, the character might function as a sort of generic antagonist, representing the indifference and the suspicion Genli encounters everywhere.

For Estraven, I lit upon Chipo Chung – although she may be a bit young for the part, and the wrong age relation to Genli. I have only ever seen her in two small bit parts in Doctor Who, one of them in heavy Alien makeup, but I figured that if an actress manages to stay in one's mind after seeing her in a couple of small bit parts, she's probably got the goods, and I would love to see her in a main role one day. She has a great face for the part, but more importantly, she has a sort of aggressive energy which, I think, would fit the part of Estraven quite well – and which might also help explain why Genli initially dislikes and distrusts him/her. Wouldn't you be a little wary of that fortune teller in Turn Left?

I guess that drafting the script and casting the movie, on top of developing some environments and costumes, wasn't strictly a requirement to fulfil the assignment – and I've also already written the title song! So all I now need to do, is to negotiate the film rights, and find a producer.

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June newsletter now online: [link]

Midwinter
* Living in the Wairarapa: Getting Up Early
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Iris Compiet [link]
* Pirates, Vampires, and Tall Dark Strangers (pt 1)
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


Brothers Grimm cover design:


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

First up, thanks SO MUCH for all the feedback & opinions, everyone! Couldn't have done it without. <-- for you!

So here are the final versions of the Grimm Tales cover - there wasn't a clear favorite, though most people preferred the blue face, a lot of people preferred the darker design on the back, some liked the moon repeated on the back very much, some didn't. The most contested part of the design was the goose - some of my designer or artist friends pointed out that it was a bit much, a bit random, and made a funny shape, though most other people I asked (including a bunch of other designers & artists, as well as whatever children's opinion I managed to obtain) liked the goose. In the end I asked my mom (not randomly - she used to be a children's librarian) -- she also picked the design with the goose and without the moon on back. In the end - after changing my mind twice, the contest site lets you do that, arghhh -- I went with my first choice, which is a bit more subdued - simply because I felt that it might be more appropriate for this particular publishing house. THe other Grimm Tales covers they have are all quite dark and a bit spooky. If it had been a German publisher, I would definitely have gone with the "semifinal" version!

FINAL CHOICE:

THE ONE THAT NEARLY MADE IT (and a lot of you liked best):

Previous journal entry about the Grimm covers (the "design process"): [link]


As to the entry for the "Penguin" part of the contest, the given book was "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", which I have less of an shall we say emotional tie to (as I did with the Grimm Tales), but I thought it was an interesting book to illustrate (lots of visual symbols in the text), and came up with what I thought was a reasonably good concept.  I didn't get nearly as much feedback on this one as I did on the Grimm Tales - for various reasons, I suppose, one of them being that it isn't after all so hot a design!   -- One of my designer/illustrator friends I asked for an opinion really did not like it. Well I admit it is a bit shrill -- it was intended to be -- I tried, on her advice, to tone it down a bit (again, I first submitted one version then changed my mind) -- but in the end I thought, well, if I want to do a bright, in-your-face sort of design I better do the full Monty, otherwise it's just going to be neither here nor there. And if it is shrill enough to actually induce dislike - rather than just a yawn - then I suppose I'd prefer that reaction, for at least it will have got someone's attention! I still think it's not such a bad design, except admittedly, not very "Penguin" (they are after all famous for their Understatement).

FINAL CHOICE:

THE CHICKEN-OUT VERSION:


Perhaps it was a bit over-ambitious to try and do two designs in the space of just over one week. Looking at it again in the morning (after catching up on the accumulated sleep deficit) I wonder if the "semifinal" design might not have been the better choice after all -- it certainly seems to work better in the "thumbnail" version. At least it might have been, if I'd given myself enough time to work on it a bit more - make the central vignette something *really* cool. O well -- :shrugs: --- it's not like I have any expectations of winning this award! Mostly, it was just a good way for me to test if I was really happy to (and capable of) doing this type of work, to a deadline (I am). And it all adds to the portfolio! Besides, it's a way to get someone who works at Penguin /slash/ Puffin to get to have a look at my designs, and that is indeed something I very much need to do -- my "good intention" for the year!

Previous journal entry about this design is here: [link]

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March newsletter now online: [link]
Living in the Wairarapa, painting, music, gardening, a review of a local art show, and a trip to Taranaki! With lots of new photos.

Taranaki
* Living in the Wairarapa
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Back home in Wellington ...
*Taranaki
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

Ah yes. And I also bought a house. But of what importance is that, compared with a Kiriban! -- stay tuned for my February newsletter to read more about that: [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales - Penguin/Puffin books cover design contest: UPDATES

  

Thanks everyone for the feedback on the previous journal entry (or via Facebook) -- that was really enormously helpful!

Well, the overwhelming opinion was that it was a good idea, but didn't work, so I stuck with the idea but redesigned it completely: I scrapped the tracing and drew the forest patterns by hand, which is much cleaner and gave me much more control to work with different layers -- also changed position and shape of the text box on the back, so I hope it is more evocative of forest now! More of a nighttime forest this time though.

More importantly, I also brought out the shapes I saw on the front cover, so I hope they are now clearer!  

The biggest challenge with this, I found, was to find a workable color scheme. I have stuck with the swatches that came with the template file (not sure if this was a requirement, but better safe than sorry!) -- which is, of course, quite restrictive - took me a while to find a set where I could work tone in tone and have it not look too "busy", while still being interesting. Not sure if I've achieved this -- you tell me!

Now I have to decide which version to submit: there is a more "green" and a more "blue" version, my slight preference is for the green version, which I cannot justify with any tenets of design or color theory, it just seems warmer. Then there is also the question of the goose: I am not sure the golden goose makes sense, it's probably not the most "recognizable" of characters (though really, if you know the Grimm Tales well, there are plenty of geese! Golden and otherwise). I like that it adds an element of brightness and warmth, but it does detract from the figure in front, and perhaps draw a bit too much attention, so I guess the design "without goose" is cleaner. Mostly, I think it works better in the green version with the golden face. Again, I can't justify that scientifically -- but hey, this is after all supposed to be art.

Here are some versions of the front cover:

  

And some versions of the back: here the question comes down to "moon or no moon" for the green version, or "blue or yellow text box" for the blue version, I guess! I think the first green version without moon works really well though. But more important to choose the best front cover, I guess!



Please let me know what you think!

- Which of the color schemes do you prefer?
- yellow or blue face?
-Goose or no goose?

- moon or no moon on the back, or yellow or blue text box in the blue version?

- any other thoughts.

Just don't tell me if you think this really sucks, 'coz I won't have time to do another version! -- Will do some cleaning g up tomorrow though.If you spot any goofs, PLEASE let me know!

PREVIOUS JOURNAL ENTRY ON THIS TOPIC:



I am working on a cover illustration for the "Fairytales" by the Brothers Grimm, it's for a Penguin/Puffin books cover design contest which I'm entering through the London Art College course   I'm doing.

Having grown up in Germany, of course I am very familiar with the tales, and the whole "culture" surrounding it.... for me, the Grimm tales always have to do with the forest.

The design is based on this photo  I took in Bavaria last summer.
I did a black and white tonal sketch based on it
then another one bringing out some of the fairy tale character shapes I was seeing.

Then I did a tracing in Adobe illustrator (greyscale three colors, it took a bit of fumbling with the settings!) so that I could assign different fill and stroke colors to the three levels of white-grey-black (that gives me a maximum of 6 colors).

The design template came with a set of swatches, which I take to be the official Penguin/Puffin swatches (they have a very recognizable Penguin/Puffin feel to them!)

I tried different color versions. First I went for green, trying to keep it naturalistic and forest like. There are two versions, one lighter, one with darker shades, which I am not sure, does it make it more rich, or more garish?

Then I tried some not-so-foresty colors, the two schemes I liked were a rather subdued blue one, and one with rich dark reds and yellows, which goes more in the direction of "treasure chest", I think.

This design is for Puffin books, so it should appeal to children - somewhat older children though, not very young ones. However, the book is also a venerable classic, so I didn't want to make it too bright and garish!

Questions:
a) which of the four versions appeals to you most?
b) if you were buying a  book of Grimm Tales, would you buy one with one of those covers?
c) what shapes do you see in the forest?
d) Should I elaborate on the shapes more? Make them clearer?
e) does this still look like a forest fringe to you, or is it just random abstract scriggleyscragg?
f) any other suggestions you might have

(PS: I am aware that the text box on the back is not centered, .... will fix alignment issues before submitting. But by all means give me feedback on design issues like text field colors, size, position, and fonts!)
********************************************

March newsletter now online: [link]
Living in the Wairarapa, painting, music, gardening, a review of a local art show, and a trip to Taranaki! With lots of new photos.

Taranaki
* Living in the Wairarapa
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Back home in Wellington ...
*Taranaki
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

Ah yes. And I also bought a house. But of what importance is that, compared with a Kiriban! -- stay tuned for my February newsletter to read more about that: [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

... and thanks for all the fish!

I am working on another version of the Grimm Fairy Tales cover, which I will post when ready (it will have to be soon, as the deadline is only 3 1/2 days away) -- thanks for all the fantastic feedback from everyone! That really helped.

Meanwhile, I have also been designing a cover for the Adults section of the contest. The book to create a cover for is "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey, which I hadn't read before (only seen the movie, and that quite a long time ago) but am quite glad that this gave me the kick to do so! It hasn't lost any of its relevance, and besides, is a surprisingly good and funny read, given the grim topic!

  :thumb296236163:


The book is all about the juxtaposition of the strict rules and unbending order imposed by Nurse Ratched, and the element of chaos introduced by rebellious, fun-loving McMurphy. The text abounds with visual symbols to pick from: I went for the broken window (McMurphy repeatedly smashes the glass partition between the nurse's office and the patient's common room), and the leaping salmon, who crops up repeatedly in Chief Bromden's reminiscences, as well as in the fishing trip with is the high point of McMurphy's endeavors to break Nurse Ratched's rule.

Obviously, the entire book is about the brain/mind, and what is being done to it -- looking up reference on the net, I found that the shape of a single  brain cell resonates admirably with the broken window pattern I was after, which was an opportunity too good to pass up. I actually went and did a 3 D model in Lightwave for the purpose, partly in order to not run foul of any copyrights, but also because I've always wanted to experiment with using generated 3D images for illustration. Fortunately, this particular shape was really easy to model! Still took me the best part of a day (err -- night) to get the textures and lighting and camera settings right. But it's been quite a while since I had an opportunity to jump into Lightwave, and one wants to keep up one's hard gained skills! So it was quite worth the effort. In the event, I am not quite sure if it might have been better/more coherent, to design the brain cell in Illustrator as well, but then again I quite like the idea that it adds to the visual Otherness of the focal area on the cover.

The design deliberately references the classic Penguin "grid" - and the Penguin orange! I picked the light blue because it is the complementary color, but it also works really well to evoke both the freedom of sky and fresh sea air, and the clinical coolness of the setting. I deliberately went for some rather bright, psychedelic colors for the central image - after all, the book is about psychedelic drugs, among other things. Hope it didn't turn out looking too goofy and cartoony! I was also thinking of Native American Art in the designs of the salmon and the brain -- I once bought a little print in Vancouver, of a salmon more abstract than this one, but interestingly, it has quite a similar color scheme! Working in Illustrator always makes me think of this kind of style.

Anyway, please let me know what you think! And if there is anything that really does not work. I'm basically happy with this design, I only hope it isn't too "clever" but still makes an appealing design even if you don't "get" half the references. I also would like some opinions on which version of the front cover works better.

Thanks to !AlaskaStock for her fantastic stock photo of leaping salmons! Perfect for my purpose: :thumb247444237: -- heaps of other great animal reference to be found in that gallery!

********************************************

March newsletter now online: [link]
Living in the Wairarapa, painting, music, gardening, a review of a local art show, and a trip to Taranaki! With lots of new photos.

Taranaki
* Living in the Wairarapa
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Back home in Wellington ...
*Taranaki
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

Ah yes. And I also bought a house. But of what importance is that, compared with a Kiriban! -- stay tuned for my February newsletter to read more about that: [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales - Penguin/Puffin books cover design contest



I am working on a cover illustration for the "Fairytales" by the Brothers Grimm, it's for a Penguin/Puffin books cover design contest which I'm entering through the London Art College course   I'm doing.

Having grown up in Germany, of course I am very familiar with the tales, and the whole "culture" surrounding it.... for me, the Grimm tales always have to do with the forest.

The design is based on this photo  I took in Bavaria last summer.
I did a black and white tonal sketch based on it
then another one bringing out some of the fairy tale character shapes I was seeing.

Then I did a tracing in Adobe illustrator (greyscale three colors, it took a bit of fumbling with the settings!) so that I could assign different fill and stroke colors to the three levels of white-grey-black (that gives me a maximum of 6 colors).

The design template came with a set of swatches, which I take to be the official Penguin/Puffin swatches (they have a very recognizable Penguin/Puffin feel to them!)

I tried different color versions. First I went for green, trying to keep it naturalistic and forest like. There are two versions, one lighter, one with darker shades, which I am not sure, does it make it more rich, or more garish?

Then I tried some not-so-foresty colors, the two schemes I liked were a rather subdued blue one, and one with rich dark reds and yellows, which goes more in the direction of "treasure chest", I think.

This design is for Puffin books, so it should appeal to children - somewhat older children though, not very young ones. However, the book is also a venerable classic, so I didn't want to make it too bright and garish!

Questions:
a) which of the four versions appeals to you most?
b) if you were buying a  book of Grimm Tales, would you buy one with one of those covers?
c) what shapes do you see in the forest?
d) Should I elaborate on the shapes more? Make them clearer?
e) does this still look like a forest fringe to you, or is it just random abstract scriggleyscragg?
f) any other suggestions you might have

(PS: I am aware that the text box on the back is not centered, .... will fix alignment issues before submitting. But by all means give me feedback on design issues like text field colors, size, position, and fonts!)
********************************************

March newsletter now online: [link]
Living in the Wairarapa, painting, music, gardening, a review of a local art show, and a trip to Taranaki! With lots of new photos.

Taranaki
* Living in the Wairarapa
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Back home in Wellington ...
*Taranaki
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

Ah yes. And I also bought a house. But of what importance is that, compared with a Kiriban! -- stay tuned for my February newsletter to read more about that: [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

This is stolen from ~fuel-for-flight's journal.

Bold the books you've read COMPLETELY, italicize the ones you've read part of, and star * the ones you honestly plan to read. Movies don't count, yo, and neither do cartoons. Read at least seven? If so, you're doing better than average person.

oo1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen(several times - it's one of my comfort books. That's like in comfort foods - for those times when I'm feeling in need of an uplifter)
oo2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien  (Lost count of the times. I LIVED there for a while.)
oo3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë (several times - improves on each read)
oo4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling (read all seven, prefer Prisoner of Azkhaban)
oo5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
oo6. The Bible
oo7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
oo8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (long time ago, and in German translation)
oo9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (need to read again soon! Oh yes and take your Narnia and shove it. )
o1o. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
o11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
o12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (I think so. Can't remember too clearly. Thought it pretty grim and awful. May not actually have finished it. Memory is hazy -- that tells you something)
o13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
o14. Complete Works of William Shakespeare (quite  a few of them. Wouldn't mind reading them all eventually though!)
o15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
o16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (like I say. Lived there.)
o17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
o18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (I think I had to read it for school, and I totally didn't get it. Maybe I should try again.) 
o19. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
o2o. Middlemarch - George Eliot * (it's on my shelf, next to "The Madwoman in the Attic". Reading "The Mill on the Floss" at the moment, actually. Been reading it for a while … need to finish it off sometime.)
o21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (stupidest non-happy-ending EVER)
o22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald(again, memory is hazy, but I am fairly certain that yes I did read the whole thing. And promptly forgot most of it. What is it about again?)
o23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
o24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy  (I would star this, but am not sure there is enough time left in my lifetime … I'm one third through Anna Karenina though, need to finish that one first!)
o25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (yeah baby!)
o26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (gah, I can't remember if I actually read the book. I do remember I was very impressed by the tv show from the 1980's though)
o27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (My favorite is The Idiot, though)
o28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
o29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
o3o. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
o31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (As mentioned earlier, one on the stack of books I am currently reading simultaneously)
o32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
o33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (once was enough.)
o34. Emma - Jane Austen (another comfort book, I read it in alternation with Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre, for moral uplifting. My favorite Jane Austen book, even before P&P)
o35. Persuasion - Jane Austen (Pity she didn't quite get to polish it up, I love the storyline but the writing seems a bit thinner than in other books at times)
o36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (redundant - see Chronicles of Narnia)
o37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
o38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
o39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
o4o. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
o41. Animal Farm - George Orwell (probably should. Don't feel like it though.)
o42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (I saw the movie. Nuff said. :S)
o43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Oh gosh I do think I read that one - or was it Life in the Time of Cholera?)
o44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
o45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
o46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
o47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
o48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
o49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
o5o. Atonement - Ian McEwan
o51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
o52. Dune - Frank Herbert * (Gosh. I. Really. Need. To.)
o53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
o54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
o55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
o56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
o57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
o58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (another school assignment. But yes, it stayed in my mind)
o59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon
o6o. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I did read either this, or One Hundred Years of Solitude. Uhm. Maybe the Wikipedia plot synopsis will give me a clue?)
o61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
o62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (Yuck)
o63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
o64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (yuckyuckyuck. Ok I shouldn't say that as I haven't read it, but I did try to watch the movie and didn't get past the first 10, 15 minutes.)
o65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
o66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac (not impressed at the time, but I might give it another go)
o67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
o68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
o69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (never finished it. I love some of Rushdie's books - "The Ground Beneath her Feet" is BRILLIANCE - but this one was tough going for me)
o7o. Moby Dick - Herman Melville*
o71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (italic because I'm not sure if I actually read the book, or only saw several film/tv adaptations)
o72. Dracula - Bram Stoker *
o73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
o74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
o75. Ulysses - James Joyce (I am not that ambitious)
o76. The Inferno – Dante (and Purgatory and Paradise, too. Fabulous stuff!)
o77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
o78. Germinal - Emile Zola
o79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
o8o. Possession - AS Byatt (LOVELOVE LOVE this book. Gave it away, foolishly, but will buy it again and read it again, one day)
o81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
o82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
o83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker (a tentative *)
o84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
o85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (another tentative * - if I ever find the time)
o86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
o87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
o88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
o89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
o9o. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
o91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
o92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (in French. When I didn't know any French. Took me the first three pages to figure out the whole thing was written in the first person, but after that, it was pretty good.)
o93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks (never heard of it. Looked it up. I wish I hadn't heard of it. And I thought Lovely Bones and Lolita were yuck.)
o94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
o95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
o96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
o97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (but I did read La Dame aux Camelias, by the Junior, in French, and I rather loved it at the time)
o98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
o99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (didn't read it but loved the film)
1oo. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Result: I have read at least a third of the books on this list, with a couple more unsure, or in the works.

Does that make me look bookish???

Another question: If this is supposed to be a cross section of some of the classics of European and American literature, why is there not a single book originally written in German on this list? No Goethe, Schiller, Brothers Grimm, Kafka, Heine, Kant, Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Thomas Mann, Böll, Michael Ende? -- and only one in Italian, and one author writing in Spanish. And I'm not even griping about authors like Lindgren, Lagerlöf, Saramago, Kundera…

On the other hand, we get the flippin' Da Vinci Code, or stuff like The Wasp Factory or Captain Corelli's Mandolin. :S


********************************************

February newsletter now online: [link]
in which I report all sorts of good news. Plus, a feature of =Crooty, and some adventures I've had in Internetland.

Home Sweet Home
* Home at Last
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: =Crooty
* Asni's Adventures in Internetland
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

Ah yes. And I also bought a house. But of what importance is that, compared with a Kiriban! -- stay tuned for my February newsletter to read more about that: [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

Just a quicky to say, Kiriban approaching! I'm about to hit 30 000 page views. Don't you love it that there is an extra special word for this? Good to know I'm not the only one obsessed with page view stats and round numbers.

If you are the lucky one to be my 30 000st page viewer, you get to commission an artwork! I am working (or at least, intending to work) on a series of "vector animals" - the first two examples are here:


- you get to suggest your animal of choice for this series. Just notify me in a comment to this journal! And uh, give me a bit of time for completion.

EDIT: --- GOLLY that went fast!!!! And the lucky winner is -- ~soraac   -- and the proof is here! [link]

I do wonder if someone just went back and forth to my page 120 times. .. uh. I've never had so many page views in a day! For a moment there I thought I might finally have got a DD (which would have been highly deserving and just about time, of course, hint, hint) --  AAAAAANYWAY, so ~soraac gets to nominate an animal, and I will vector it and post it here in due time.

Also pimping my last two newsletters (I really need to update this journal more often!)
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January newsletter now online: [link]
in which I wait. Plus, featuring a new piece "Der Knabe und der Wassermann III", a friend's project to fundraise for a school in South India, and more Doctor Who fandom -- err - serious literary criticism.

Parallel Universes
* In Between
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: Building a Dream School in India
* Parallel Universes (for the Doctor Who x Rose fans!!!)
********************************************
.. and my December newsletter, which is mostly remarkable for the big holiday feature, featuring a number of your fellow deviants, , and also the remainder of my European photo journal, with pretty pictures from Southern Germany.

Home is Where
* Happy New Year!
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: The Holiday feature:

* Travel diary: Asni does not live here any more

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

Ah yes. And I also bought a house. But of what importance is that, compared with a Kiriban! -- stay tuned for my February newsletter to read more about that: [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

My November newsletter is now online: [link]
in which I occupy Wellington, support a fellow artist, go on holiday, and buy a house (fingers crossed).

Crisis Management
* Occupations
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: New art book by *dragonladych
* Travel diary: Spreewald and Torún
********************************************
... and it seems I've been so busy, I've entirely omitted posting my October newsletter here: [link]
in which I rant. And rant. And rant some more.

Occupy the Internet!
* Occupations
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: *p-e-a-k
* Travel diary: Brugge and Stockholm

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

********************************************
MIDDLE EARTH NEW ZEALAND 2012 PHOTO WALL CALENDAR - still some left! - [link]

:thumb264847685: :thumb264508650: :thumb264658058: :thumb264674760: :thumb264845761:
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This month has been such a whirl of things, I can hardly remember what I was doing at the beginning of it. Ah yes. I occupied Wellington! Admittedly, it was what you might call "occupation lite". One afternoon after I'd done whatever business I had in town – getting the new sheet music books printed, I believe – I went down to the waterfront, and politely asked the pink haired woman (roughly my age) who was one of the people I found there, if I might sit next to her and occupy for a bit. She said I was most welcome, and in a short space I found myself involved in the most outspoken political discussion I have ever had since touching down in New Zealand.

I can't remember exactly what the gist of the conversation was, but part of it was, what do we actually want to happen? I staunchly advocated that the one thing we don't need, are any more -isms. Some people there, it seemed to me, clearly did have an agenda: one guy had written up a leaflet claiming that what we need is good old Socialism, another was telling us something about some idealized organizational structure – supposedly it exists, somewhere, organizations like Google, or Weta perhaps, or at least they advertise themselves that way. But then I ask, who gets to be admitted to these utopias of self-realization? Not me, that's for sure.

I remember a conversation I had with a young fellow who was sitting on the floor opposite me and agonizing about the fact that here he was, talking, while he could be doing something more "useful". I told him that I thought talking to other people was actually very useful, because it was bound to influence behaviour in small and subtle ways. What could he be doing that was more important? "Well - earn money", he said with a wry grin, obviously realizing the irony of that statement, in that context. We talked a bit more, and I said that what I thought was needed, was not one big massive change, but a hundred thousand billion tiny little changes. How people always want to see some drastic sign that something has changed. Statues of Lenin toppled over, aristocrats beheaded, or whatever. While really what matters are all the tiny little acts that people do in the course of a day, and everyone – absolutely everyone – has the power to make that sort of change. That seemed to impress him somehow. He came to sit next to me, and fell silent, thinking it over. After a short while I turned to him and pointed out that he had just spent the last five minutes thinking, because of something I'd said.


It was the day of the Oakland strike – surely you have heard of the Oakland strike? Actually, I can't blame you if you haven't heard of the Oakland strike. If you've paid attention, you might just have heard about it on the news (the Guardian, for one, had a reporter on location who kept a blog) – the thousands (how many thousands, is a matter of dispute) of people who turned up to shut down Oakland harbour, in reaction to the events in Oakland of the previous week, which were rather conspicuously absent from the headline news, both in the US and elsewhere (I did check). The brutal crackdown on the group of people who were camping in a public square in Oakland, a large contigent of police in full riot gear, visors down, throwing tear gas, shooting at people with rubber bullets, sent in to deal with the public threat of ... people camping. The tv stations may have ignored it, but there were numerous videos posted on Youtube – I'm posting links to a small selection here.

[link] ** [link] ** [link] ** [link] ** [link] ** [link]

The unabashed State violence that I'm witnessing on these videos absolutely apalls me. This is the Land of the Free, the society that styles itself the paragon of democracy and civic liberties? What I see in those Oakland videos, is Tianamen Square, without the tanks. I only hope my little brothers in the States will remember those videos from Oakland, next time someone tries to draft them to put their life on the line in the name of "defending democracy" in some country with rich natural resources, which isn't complying with the needs of the 1% who run the US economy.

And it doesn't stop there. I haven't been following events closely for the rest of the month – my own life has been keeping me pretty busy – but I did find the video of the police officer casually pouring pepper spray on students at UC Davis, as if they were so many garden weeds. * [link] * That police officer there would have made an excellent KZ gas chamber operator! He's got just the right attitude for the job.

There has been an investigation into this particular incident, but one has to ask, why only now? According to this article, these things have been going on at Californian universities for years, to the extent that a number of my US American acquaintances couldn't understand at all what I was so wound up about, when I posted those videos on my Facebook account, and commented upon the inappropriateness of using that amount of brutal force to crack down on protesters who, by all accounts, didn't do a thing to provoke it with any aggression on their part. People who were simply exercising some of their basic human rights, in what is after all a public space – such as the right of peaceful assembly, and the right to Have an Opinion.

Shame on you, indeed.

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

My September newsletter has been online for  a little while - check it out here: [link]

Travel Tales, part II
* Catching up
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: ~saksagan
* Travel diary: Yorkshire and Cardiff
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

********************************************
MIDDLE EARTH NEW ZEALAND 2012 PHOTO WALL CALENDAR NOW SHIPPING! - [link]

:thumb264847685: :thumb264508650: :thumb264658058: :thumb264674760: :thumb264845761:

Here in the Wairarapa, it's all been buckling down to work, trying to catch up with all the things that have been left lying about while I was away traveling. My furniture and boxes of books and sound recordings have arrived from Germany – meaning, my place is a mess and I need to find a space for all the stuff I've been quite happily living without for the past eight and a half years. Even though the shipment included some much-missed Ikea shelves (bless them), still the shelf space somehow never seems enough. And I'd hate for this place to start feeling cluttered.

The two things I am really happy to have back, are my dear old custom-built bike – now that spring has sprung! – and my Spanish cross-strung harp. To my relief, it did arrive all in one piece, and I even have found a few minutes here and there to start tuning it back up to pitch. Seeing that I've also been busy getting my hands on every Bob Dylan and Joan Baez song book in the library (there are quite a few), I can't wait to wrap my fingers around those songs. I bet they will work just fine – turns out old man Dylan is quite a fan of that old descending tetrachord, sometimes known as the chacona or passacaglia … most familiar territory, that.

Coming back to Germany after all those years, was weird. The place has become virtually unrecognizable. There was a rather uncommonly *friendly* vibe from most people I had to deal with – including the dread bureaucrats at the dread Office for Retirement Matters (yes, one is getting on in age)! Even the fact that I was able, in the one week I had available, to not only organize the shipment of my boxes and things, but also sort out what needed to be sorted out about my future retirement claims, tells me that something must have changed.

Then, there are wind turbines everywhere. And listening to the radio one day, I heard it casually mentioned that there now is no compulsory military service any more. Feels like every item we had on our agendas when my 16 year old self was active in the peace movement and marching in the streets for disarmament, and the shutting down of nuclear power plants, has meanwhile been addressed. One might almost think that one could have stayed there. Well, if they'd also clean up all the air and all the water … and get rid of a lot of those cars and several of those Autobahnen … and finally allow people who have lived there for three generations to become citizens without having to sever the bond with their family's countries … Still, it's nice to feel that whatever minuscule influence my own involvement might have had, it hasn't been all for nothing. Makes me go all weepy just to think of it. One tends to forget the constant presence of fear that the world might end any minute at the touch of a button, which I and the people my age all grew up with.

My mother's 75th birthday was pretty low key: We drove downtown to where one can walk along the river Spree through the newly built government quarters – the part of the inner city that used to the barren wasteland on both sides of the Wall. The plan was to catch a boat ride, but somehow that didn't happen, so we just went for a walk from the Tiergarten round by Friedrichstrasse and back through the Brandenburg gate. I hadn't seen any of the new government quarter buildings they've put up where the Death Strip used to be. It's all very futuristic, but in a light, airy way, with lots of glass and mirrors – buildings that camouflage their imposing massiveness by reflecting the sky and surroundings. Much preferable, I think, to the deliberately oppressive architecture of power and money one can see, for instance, in the London Docklands. Looks like the city is finally beginning to heal, after all those years.

Given all the traveling around, and organizing of stuff, I was doing, there was precious little time to just do things in Berlin. One afternoon, I met my online friend ~catherineanne, who just happened to be in Berlin, for a very cultivated cup of tea at a specialty tea place near our mutual former homes in Schöneberg, and afterwards went for a long walk through the old familiar streets taking photos of things and people that caught my eye. I eventually wound up at Potsdamer Platz, but that's when either my battery or my memory stick ran out, so I had a cocktail at Billy Wilder's instead, downstairs from the Filmakademie and opposite the Berlinale head offices, for old time's sake. Then I went to admire Berlin's very own spanking new Boulevard of the Stars, and was delighted to spot Asta Nielsen there, among a few other more or less well known names and signatures – I hadn't been aware that she'd had a connection to the city, too. She, and Marlene, of course.

My favourite day in (or around) Berlin was the day my parents and I drove out to the weavery in Geltow, which my parents had discovered some time ago, and bought things from on and off – some of the linen fabrics you can see in my still life paintings came from there. They'd sent me a link to their website, and I'd read about the history of the place, which is quite fascinating, so I was curious to see it with mine own eyes. I thought perhaps I might learn a thing, too. What I learned was that attitudes toward customer service are slow in changing … but my mother, who really wanted to buy me a present, bought me a beautiful hand woven linen shirt for a ridiculous amount of money, but then again, if there was a chance I'd ever have grandchildren, they would probably still be able to wear it. No "made in a sweat shop in China" stuff, this.

Afterwards, we had lunch at the Fährhaus in Caputh. Caputh is a place I had long been curious about, because it is the home of some White Lady or Water Woman who figures in a favourite local tale I had read as a child – but for the longest time I lived in Berlin, it was just out of reach behind that Wall. The Fährhaus was an all around success: The summer tables are on a sunny verandah right by the waterside, and their menu is all traditional local foods, which turned out to be generous portions of very well prepared food. I had chanterelles. I don't know how long it has been since I've had chanterelles. I don't know how long it will be until I will have chanterelles again. But I'll survive. Somehow.

Before driving home, we went for a stroll along the arm of the river Havel which links the Templiner See and Schwielowsee. This is very much the landscape of my childhood weekends, when we used to go kayaking on those parts of the river Havel which were inside West Berlin. It was my last day – we'd sent my shipment of boxes and things on its way the day before, and I was going to take the plane back to New Zealand next morning – but as perfect days go, this came pretty close.


****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

My August newsletter has been online for  a little while - check it out here: [link]

Songs without Sound
* Diamonds minus Rust over Visions of Johanna (and the Jack of Hearts, too)
* Songs without Sound
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

********************************************



The music in my mind has been silent for the last several years. When I was a child, I cannot remember a time when I was not listening to something playing in my head, a catchy tune that stuck (it sometimes got a bit obnoxious, when it was a tune I didn't particularly like), or perhaps, I suspect, some of the songs and melodies I might have given shape to if I had had the tools. I don't think I was able to formulate that urge even to myself until fairly recently, so strong has been the bias against people – and especially girl people – writing their own music, rather than painstakingly performing that of old men 300 years dead, in the culture I grew up in.

I used to play pieces on my desk lamp (one of those old-fashioned jobs with big metal springs and hollow pieces of metal, you could do great sci-fi movie soundtracks on these things), for lack of another outlet! I had a recorder, and sometimes would pipe my own stuff on that, but I always seemed to run out of notes at the bottom end far too quick, so that was frustrating.

When I came to New Zealand, and eventually decided to give up performing and concentrate on my painting and photography instead, I thought I was ok with it. I haven't even been listening to music any more, those last few years. Too much pain, I guess. Unadmitted pain, which is always the worst kind.

Instead, was starting to get rather scarily hypersensitive to any sort of noise. Well, that's gone now, too. I got something else to listen to: For the past few weeks, there has been a wild mercury mouth organ playing in my head, and something will need to be done about it all. I am not entirely sure what.

I have moved my Casio keyboard into the lounge, next to the wood burner, and have already spent a few evenings making up some sounds and recording them in Garageband. The other night I had to weep at just how easy I still find that. After 40 years of starvation, how much music I may still have left in me I don't know. Sometimes the anger I have about all those wasted years, all those wasted melodies, drowns me. How people could fail to see this and acknowledge it, when I was a kid, I will never understand.

I also got drunk the other night and sang my own rendition of "Ring them Bells" and recorded it, after obsessively listening to Joan Baez's version on Youtube and learning it by ear. It's not Joan Baez, but it's not so bad either. Suits my voice. And hey, if Dylan can sing in public …

I've had bits and pieces of verse running through my head, and have started writing them down in a little notebook I have lying about. They just came. Brought on by that Dylan thing, I suppose. He talks about "finding a song on the garden pathway of the sun", and that makes perfect sense to me – I guess that's where I find mine, if and when I find then.

I don't know what it all means, or what I am going to do with it. But I have learned, over the years, that when something hits you in that fashion, you better drop everything and pay attention, for you will ignore it at your peril. I've always thought I might make another album one day, preferably one with my own material. Perhaps, unbeknownst to myself, I have just started working on it.

We'll see.



In other news, in the last few weeks I have been contacted about licensing one of my harp music tracks for a sampler CD to appear in Germany, had yet another email from someone who bought and absolutely loved my Travels in Middle-earth CD (and wanted to know if there is sheet music available). My Spanish harp has arrived, along with the rest of my books, sound recordings and sheet music I still had stored in a basement in Germany. Might play some of those Bob Dylan and Joan Baez songs ...

The Middle Earth New Zealand calendar sales have been going quite well so far, especially considering how little effort I have made. I have already nearly covered the production costs: two more calendars sold, and that will be it! They continue to be available from my online shop, and I will start listing them on Ebay next month (at the same price – so you're better off ordering them through my site, really! ) [link]

And I have some new artwork to present! I have been working on a few new oil paintings simultaneously over the first half of the year, but Song in Green Sharp Major is the first one I have finished since I had the Fantastic Journeys exhibition last year.

It's a bit of a new thing for me, verging away from very literal illustrations, into something more abstract-y and surreal – and as the title implies, it has something to do with music. Mostly, I've been interested in creating some rich textures and colours, and a rhythm that would flow backward and forward through the piece. Part of the picture appeared to me in a dream a while ago (which does not happen very often, and I think when it does, it's a moral obligation to get off one's butt and paint it) – and it connected with a place, and a sketch I had done on my trip to Switzerland a couple of year's ago. There is also a quote from Paul Klee, see if you can spot it!

It's the first time I have worked with gold leaf: I have always been fascinated by medieval paintings with gold background, there just isn't anything else that brings the colours out so vividly. Recently, I've come across the work of Jackie Morris, an illustrator from Wales who works in a beautiful, medieval-inspired style, and uses gold background quite a lot – and since she is a friend of a friend, or rather two friends, of mine, I have her on my Facebook account and could pester her for a few technical hints direct from the horse's, err, professional's mouth. Ain't that handy!



The other piece of work I have done is a riff on Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and some of their songs. It started from a fairly literal pencil sketch I did of that one scene in the documentary "Don't look back", which I have mentioned in my looooong article above.

I played around with the composition a bit, then inked it in Photoshop, and put in some colours and textures. The first idea was to refer to Joan Baez' song Diamonds and Rust, which talks about her memories of her time with Bob Dylan. Consequently I found some stock photos of rust and diamonds... which resulted in the textures and colour scheme of the first image.

Then I thought I should do another version, the same memory from Dylan's point of view, and yes there is a song to go with it, Visions of Johanna: change the key to blue, and make it much more tormented.

Given that playing cards (and gypsy fortune tellers) are a recurring theme in Dylan's songs, I thought it would be neat to try if I could fashion this into a playing card type image. It worked very nicely, I thought, very yin and yang. The song "Diamonds and Rust" was (or so the story goes) inspired by Dylan's calling up Joan Baez one day and reading her the lyrics for "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts". Jack of Hearts seemed quite appropriate for Dylan, and she is always the Queen – of folksong, of hearts, or of Diamonds, so there you go. Depending on which way you turn the image, it's called "Queen of Diamonds and Rust over Visions of Johanna", or "Jack of Hearts with Visions of Johanna over Diamonds and Rust" -- or something --- I think. Can never be too sure what something is called, eh.

Since I was at it, I did a bit of browsing on DA - turns out I'm not the only one who has been doing Bob Dylan and/or Joan Baez fan art! Here is a selection of some pieces I liked (and some that aren't actually about either of them, but still connect in some way, at least for me):



****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

My June/July newsletter has been online for  a little while - check it out here: [link]

Travel Tales
* Welcome Home
* News & Current Projects
* Much Ado About Shakespeare
* London Bustle and Shire Quiet: Photo Diary
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

********************************************

... and the Jack of Hearts fits in there somewhere, too (except he didn't fit into the character limit for journal titles).

I've been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez lately. And watching movies about them. And reading their respective autobiographies. And song lyrics! If I get obsessed with something, I tend to do it thoroughly. You have to give me that.

It all started when I took out "I'm Not There" from the Featherston video store, along with "The Boat that Rocked", because they were the only two videos which I was remotely interested in. Both were movies I had kind of wanted to see - "I'm not There" had been in the film festival some years ago, I remembered that, and had gotten good reviews - and so here was my chance. Anyway, one is trying to keep up with one's music historyl - after all, that's where I got my MA.

The two movies exemplify the difference between an ok movie, and a great movie. "The Boat that Rocked" was fun, told an interesting story about an interesting time in music history, had some good actors and performances. "I'm Not There" hit me from a different angle (sorry Bob Dylan, I stole that expression from an interview - you do have a way with words, man). Something I could relate to on a whole different level. Something about the meaning of success and failure, and identity - how we see ourselves versus how others insist on seeing us, and, well, I guess something about being an artist. From an artist's point of view, so to speak, not the point of view of those who believe in The Artist as some sort of Supernatural Being - an oracle, someone who somehow knows more about life than the rest of them.

I have to admit - to my great shame, given the MA in music history and all - that up to that point, Bob Dylan had pretty much passed me by. I knew his songs of course  - quite a few of them in fact, since he seems to have written about half the superhits of the last 40 or so years, most of them famous in a version performed by someone else. Forever Young. Knocking on Heaven's Door. Mr Tambourine Man. Like a Rolling Stone. And so on. Sometimes I hadn't even been aware they were originally Dylan's

I also knew he had written the famous protest hymns, Blowin' in the Wind, The Times are a-Changing - we sang those songs, and a lot of the ones from Joan Baez' repertory, when were were marching in the streets of Germany during the "hot autumn" 1983, protesting for nuclear disarmament. And then again in the late '80's when Glasnost had begun and the Wall was starting to crumble. Part of the same momentum of  non-violent protest that had started with the Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam protests in the USA in the '60s - the protests which had helped to propel these two singers to such a position of fame and prominence at such a very young age.

I think that's what surprised me most, when I went back and got out some documentaries which showed the actual Dylan - "Don't Look Back", the documentary about the 1965 tour to the UK, in particular. How very young both of them were at the time. Dylan and Baez had been 22 years old when they stood right next to Martin Luther King Jr as he held his famous speech "I have a dream" in Washington in 1963. Then they stepped forward and sang a song. I was 22 when I  danced on top of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 -  but I was just a face in the crowd. I still remember how that felt, remember that night in great detail. It's not something you're likely to ever forget if you've been part of it, especially at that impressionable age.

Then they got swept up in that madness of public attention. Joan Baez was always the one who was outspoken and politically active, and quite happy to leverage her fame as a performer to achieve political goals, but they didn't latch on to her - no, it was Dylan who was supposed to be the "spokesman for his generation", the oracle who was supposed to have all the answers (there's probably a feminist essay somewhere in there, too, but let's leave that for some other time, huh). Dylan wasn't political. He was interested in the human condition, and concerned about issues like racial discrimination and injustice (anyhow, all his friends at the time were, so how could he not) - but he never saw himself as a protest singer. He saw himself as a poet, and a musician. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out he wrote half these songs in order to impress Joan - or for that matter, his previous/somewhat simultaneous girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, who was also active in the protest movement. He was in his early twenties, for Chrissake - and by no means the monkish type.

There is a recording of a press conference he did in December 1965 in San Francisco - an exercise in absurdist performance art. This was after Dylan famously "went electric" at the Newport Folk Festival, and got booed off the stage - which got him the media's attention big time. Evidently Dylan just couldn't bring himself to take the whole situation seriously. The first question is put to him by a very serious young man in glasses, about "the philosophy behind the photo on his new album cover", which shows Dylan wearing a motorcycle t-shirt. The journalist states that he has thought about it a great deal. Dylan just cracks up. So did I, when I saw this! "Press conference" sounds kind of boring, but of all the Dylan material I have watched in the last couple of weeks, this one is  the most thoroughly entertaining!

He still grins about it when Martin Scorsese interviews him for his 2004 documentary "No Direction Home". "You ask me why I write surreal poetry", he says, "well, that sort of activity is surreal!" - But I can't think of very many people - artists very much included - who aren't quickly flattered into a rather inflated sense of their own importance by that sort of attention. It takes a very strong mind, I think, to turn away from it and refuse to let it infect your own sense of self. Or perhaps it takes being God's Fool. Perhaps Dylan is a bit of both. I haven't met him, so how would I know.

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I do own a Joan Baez record, "Honest Lullaby", which I bought a long time ago (by record, I mean vinyl - in the days when that was still the standard format).  I bought it because I'd read a book where one of the characters listens to "her crystal-clear voice", and I'd gotten curious. I don't think I was overly impressed with the style of music - and I had no clue what half the lyrics were supposed to mean, drawing as they do heavily on some folk repertory I was not familiar with at the time. But I sure liked the voice. Who couldn't? Crystal-clear doesn't do it justice though. It's not just that it's beautiful - there is a quality to it which is, I don't know, healing? Like a ray of light in the dark? A voice that takes you by the hand, wraps you in a blanket and tells you the world is not a merry place, but everything will be fine in the end? "A voice that drove out bad spirits", Bob Dylan has written. Thanks Bob. Could have trusted you to hit the nail on the head there.

I had also watched a documentary about Woodstock, and been deeply impressed by this lion woman who, in amongst all the giants of rock n' roll bringing down lightning and thunder, walks on the stage just with her guitar - then eventually even puts that away and confronts an audience of 400 000 people with her naked voice. I can see why this would inspire people to find the courage to try and stop a tank by standing in the middle of the road unarmed and unprotected.

So I guess, in an offhand way, I had been a fan, but I didn't really know a lot about her work, either as a performer or as a political activist. I was surprised to spot her on the "Don't look back" documentary - I'd had no idea she and Dylan had been privately involved - and to see not the serious, self-assured woman I remembered from videos and record sleeves, but a young girl, teasing, mischievous, funny, and vulnerable.

The documentary filmmakers had been accompanying Dylan on the tour, and filming whenever there was a chance, "fly on the wall" style - onstage, backstage, press conferences, car rides, train rides, screaming fans, interviews, meetings with other artists, a confrontation between Dylan's manager and hotel staff, even a glimpse into the haggling that takes place behind the scenes between manager and concert promoters. Most of the scenes are very public, full of people, and Dylan is either playing absurd theater with the press, or running away from screaming fans, or trying (and sometimes failing) to be polite to all the various people who want a slice of his time, or he is gearing himself up for the next performance. Sometimes several of these things at the same time. He is usually sardonic, mostly under stress, and always the center of attention. On occasion we see him strumming on his guitar, trying to avoid a conversation someone is forcing on him, as if the music would offer him some refuge and shelter from all the madness, and he just seems to desperately wish for all these people to go away, so he can have quiet and listen to whatever words or music might be in his head.

There is one scene in the movie though, which to me, is utter beauty. A late night party in the hotel room with the inner circle of friends who came along on the tour. There's a handful of people sitting around chilling, someone is doing a painting. Joan Baez is singing and playing the guitar, and everyone listens to her, while Dylan is busy hacking away on his typewriter. He seems relaxed for once, happy even, and absorbed in whatever he is writing. You might think that's a bit rude, to keep typing away and ignore Joan's performance, until you notice that his typing is keeping time with her music. In fact, it seems he's using the typewriter not so much as a writing tool, but a sort of odd, haphazard rhythm section. He can't have gotten much down on the page! But it seems to me, he's just letting the music take him along and whatever comes out on the typewriter, comes out on the typewriter.

There's nothing spectacular about that little scene. If we didn't know that the two young people in the room were called Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, it could be a hundred college dorms, student flat shares, after concert private parties. It reminds me of something completely familiar. Late nights hanging out with musician friends, bouncing ideas, playing music, flirting, goofing. The kind of space where music and love and poetry and companionship and being young and being on top of the world all merge into one big warm fuzzy inseparable whole, and new things are born out of it. You didn't know it then, but some of these things that are born in those spaces may carry you through an entire lifetime.

Later, I picked up Joan Baez' autobiography (published in 1987, when she was 46, just a little older than I am now). I read about how miserable she had ben on this tour. Dylan had invited her to come along after they had been touring together in the US in late 1964. She had expected that he would invite her on stage to sing with him, just like she had invited him on stage with her a couple of years earlier, when she was famous and he was not yet. She felt betrayed, and used, when he did not - and heck, I would have felt that way too! She was disappointed that he was quickly and deliberately moving away from their political involvement and the folk scene which had made both of them famous. Their private relationship was flagging - by the end of the year Dylan would marry the other woman he had been dating at the same time. She felt out of place in an environment where wild parties involving all sorts of substances were the order of the day - something in which she would not participate. She felt that after being involved with Dylan for about two years, suddenly she had to vie for his attention with all the sycophants who wanted a slice of him and his success. Eventually, she decided to leave.

Dylan, on the other hand, was desperately trying to distance himself from being typecast as a "protest singer", or for that matter, a "folk singer". The 1965 documentary shows an ever more exasperated and moody Dylan as the tour progresses. Later that year, he would be booed off the stage at the Newport Folk Festival for performing with an electric guitar, and backed by a rock n'roll style band. The Scorsese documentary shows some footage from that event. After the boos, Dylan is asked to come back for a short acoustic set. As he walks on stage and begins to play, the camera (always disrespectful of people's private feelings) reveals a big fat tear rolling down his cheek.

When he took his new band on tour to the UK again in 1966, they would be booed in every venue, while people would still enthusiastically applaud the acoustic set which constituted the first half of his concerts on that tour. I have listened to a live recording from that tour - the first half consists of a set of Dylan's most err, upbeat and optimistic songs (NOT): She Belongs to Me - Fourth Time Around - Visions of Johanna - It's all Over Now, Baby Blue - Desolation Row ... he even manages to make "Just Like a Woman" sound like the saddest of blues. I got into a funk the other day just from listening to this bundle of misery on an empty stomach. Perhaps he was just tired from touring. Very likely, he wanted desperately to be home with his new wife (whom he appears to have loved madly) and new baby. But strangely, most of these songs deal with a breakup. Joan Baez thought "Visions of Johanna" sounded suspiciously as if it was about her, when she first heard it. On a limp, I would say I'm not surprised. To me, it sounds more or less like something of an apology, sort of.

.... but wait ... there will be more......

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

My April/May newsletter has been online for quite a little while now, and is about to be superceded by the latest edition, so be quick to read it! [link]

Autumn Colours
* An Unexpected Treat
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: "Some Strange Felicity" CD by Sospiri Ardenti
* Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

********************************************

... and high time for an update of this journal.

I've been to Europe and back, have uploaded the handful of travel sketches I managed to do, and am now sorting through 26 GB worth of photos.

My last newsletter has been online for the last three months and I haven't even posted it here - it contains a photo essay on Autumn Colours, plus the exciting story how I went and bought a matress in Auckland (really! not as borung as it sounds!) - an update on travel plans (now in the past) and recent artwork (now not so recent any more), a CD review of "Some Strange Felicity" by my friend Julie Comparini and her ensemble Sospiri Ardenti (a compilation of songs and stage music associated with Shakespeare's plays "The Tempest" and "As you like it", and really very good), and a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen aka Sarah Jane Smith (who died recently of cancer :very sad: ).

Read it all here! : [link] - and be quick, because it is about to be superceded by the June/July edition, which will be - you guessed it - all about my recent trip. Am I giving away too much when I say Shakespeare is going to figure in it again, and so is a certain very talented British actor known for his time traveling abilities, among other things?

Here is what I managed to do by way of sketches, while I was away. Featuring, in order: London, Yorkshire, Brugge, Bavaria, Torún, and the Spreewald. So you see I covered a bit of ground on that trip!



Now all the work and stress of preparing this trip are over, I am looking forward very much to spending some time with my canvasses again. I got a few paintings in the works, which I hope to complete (at least some of) before the end of the year. And after all the inspiration I've gathered in the Spreewald, it's high time I completed the other two images for "Der Knabe und der Wassermann"! - Then there's the next London Art School assignment to work on, and perhaps another still life or two. And if I was worried that the web design work would be slow in picking up after I came back, judging from my inbox, people have been sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for me to be back in town! Which is good, because I just very narrowly avoided bankruptcy by going on this trip at this time.

And before I forget: the 2012 edition of the Middle Earth New Zealand photo calendar is now shipping! Done by a local print shop this time, and bigger (as in, a larger print run) and better (as in, looks) than ever! Go here to find out more, and buy your copy: [link]

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks:

My March newsletter is now online: [link]
Domestic Details
* Travel Plans
* News & Current Projects
* Cool Things Friends Do: "Geist" by Philippa Ballantine
* Domestic Details
********************************************

Please visit my personal website: [link]
New Blog about web design: [link]
My Myspace & Reverbnation musician profiles: [link] ** [link]

********************************************

Really, I am not going to even bother to write - nay not even copy-paste - my own journal entry today.

Read this instead: [link] - or click on the thumbnail: :thumb202124891:

Really. You should all read this. And pass it on. And make other people read it.

In other news, I have started on a new illustration project involving some 20th century German literary fairy tales, and some vector art. Stay tuned.

****************************************************
GERMAN FAIRY TALES PROJECT
Der Knabe und der Wassermann


***************************************************

EARTHSEA ILLUSTRATION PROJECT:
Limited Edition Giclee Prints available now! [link]

A Wizard of Earthsea:


The Tombs of Atuan:


The Farthest Shore:



*******************************************************

Now available in my online shop: greeting cards for all occasions! [link]

Original Artwork for sale:
[link]

************************************************************

fellow Howers:



who else rocks: