Let’s take a break from looking at artwork. Let’s look at some photos instead. Most people like looking at photographs. Usually these are family photographs, sometimes in an album, sometimes projected on a screen with […]
Julie Rodríguez Jones is an independent artist both physically and stylistically. Julie’s space art usually falls into the impressionistic category (colloquially we call ourselves “swirlies” in the IAAA) —though not always and she will often […]
In the past two posts I’ve written about collectors and artists “From Hell” – the ways they can be high maintenance people . . . to the point where I lose patience and don’t want […]
The library of Alexandria was the largest and most comprehensive repository of knowledge in the ancient world. In 46 AD (according to some sources) it burned. Countless scrolls went up in flames, in some cases […]
Weeaboos? Weeaboos? If you don’t know what a weeaboo is, you probably aren’t one. If you’d rather be quite sure, visit this link and play weeaboo bingo with yourself! The checklist to the right is […]
“Hello, My name is Milivoj Ćeran, I live in Zagreb, Croatia. I’m a professional illustrator specialized in fanastic art.” Q: What made you want to be a fantasy illustrator? A: “That idea was in my […]
Do you think artists have a monopoly on “crazy”? Heh. You ain’t seen nothin, till you’ve had to handle the people who buy SF/F art. Not for nothin’ do corporations send employees for special training […]
So it’s now summer where I am and it’s hot as… well, it’s hot. In conjunction with the sudden heat after two weeks of rain and thunderstorms I find that I cannot string two thoughts […]
Cataclysmic Binary stars (cataclysmic variables) are star systems in which a white dwarf star and a companion star are locked in a dance of death; matter drawn from the companion can eventually cause the white […]
Let’s say, for the sake of this posting, that our corner of the collecting world consists of two groups: The Creators and The Collectors. Which group, do you think, has the monopoly on “crazy”? I’ll […]
Richard Matheson passed away on Sunday. By this time many have given their thoughts and feelings on Matheson’s body of work so I am inevitably going to re-hash what has been stated elsewhere by writers […]
Before the unthinkable happens and I miss my deadline for this blog post, why not do a meditation on – deadlines. There is art for every occasion. There truly is. Obviously, I am not the […]
Judge books by their cover? Everyone does it. That’s why – and despite the mis-marketing, agenting “horror stories” (both artist and author) and egregious lack of talent (cover-wise) – books and yes, magazines, still get […]
Comic strips were the only game in town in the 1930s but these strips were eventually collected into omnibuses that lead to the standard comic book. Heroic Fantasy was slow to appear in the “four-color […]
“Creativity exists well within structure. I thrive by having limitations to work within.” Pat Rawlings concluded his TEDxNASA presentation with those words. It is hard to imagine a better definition of the process of creating […]
How many times have we read negative reviews by (mainly) newspaper- employed critics about books or films in the science fiction/fantasy genre that either were completely off base, once we read the book, or which […]
It’s one of Science Fiction’s classic tropes and has been responsible for some of the most beloved characters in the genre — robots. Robots are almost pure design personified. The whole concept of a robot […]
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I recently signed myself up for a Horticulture Certificate with the Open Polytech, and have been assiduously studying the physical and chemical properties of soils […]
When we started framing F/SF calendar pages to hang on our walls in the 1960s (the days before commercial prints or posters were available) original Victorian “fairy paintings” by the likes of Fitzgerald, Cruikshank, Doyle […]
So there’s a brouhaha brewing around the Science Fiction Writers of America and accusations of blatant sexism within that organization. (Actually it’s more like a raging storm in some corners). The controversy surrounds the 200th issue of […]
How important is Fraud in the SF/F art market? I could write lengthy blogs on how forgers break down and then reconstitute the same clay to fashion Mid- and South American artifacts, using original (thousand-year-old) […]
You probably don’t know his name. You may not even know that there is a name behind the distinctive design, but you have very likely seen his work or a derivative of it. You will […]
Dan Durda is a Renaissance Man. Saying that invokes visions of the man as artist – painting, sculpture, close studies of perspective and perhaps human anatomy, but those visions fall far short of the reality […]
At the heart of this debate is a real difference between how some creators of commercial art (i.e, art produced for the purpose of persuasion/marketing) view the kind of art they are commissioned to create, […]
Recently a documentary had its debut at the Cannes Film Festival called Jodorowsky’s Dune. The documentary by filmmaker Frank Pavich, examines a very early attempt to make a movie based on Frank Herbert’s iconic science […]
Throughout the 1990s, while weekend antiques and craft fairs, and even Ren Faires, were drawing tens of thousands of attendees each weekend, SF cons were still deliberating the good of “one day memberships” and advertising […]
Two weeks ago I wrote about science fiction album art and I focused on two bands; Klaatu and Hawkwind. This week I’m going to continue with the theme of album art but I’m going to […]
“Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no STAR WARS” George Lucas. “What we do now digitally with computers, Ray did digitally long before but without computers. Only with his digits.” Terry Gilliam. It […]
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