Art

ICFA Continues

~ Cheryl

This morning saw a session on “sexualities” that had two trans-related papers, both of which were actually about gender bending and gender acquisition rather than about actual trans people. This was kind of disappointing because one of them was given by an expert on Brazilian SF.

The next session was the traditional panel run by Robin Reid and her Secret Slash Cabal, and it produced three superb papers. Vera Cuntz (my room mate for the con) provided an insightful and amusing paper about twins and incest in Harry Potter which actually made me want to go and read Rowling. Barbara Lucas entertained us all with stories about a goth-based perfume company, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and the associated fan community. And Eden Lee Lacker provided a masterly critique of the hideously inept FanLib.com project. I suggested that they go off and write a paper about “World Enough and Time” and associated controversies, and I’m looking forward to the result next year.

The Guest Scholar this year is Roger Luckhurst and his splendid speech introduced me to the idea of science fictional photography. This year’s conference is supposedly about “the sublime”, which is a posh was of saying “sensawunda”, and yes of course it is possible to attempt to photograph the sublime. Also these days we have photoshop. If you think this is nonsense, go check out the work of Andreas Gursky.

There are far more sessions available than any one person can attend, so please switch now to Karen Burnham who has an entirely different set of panels to talk about.

Locational Art

~ Cheryl

In Spook Country William Gibson wrote about a form of art that you could only see if you went online at a specific GPS location. I don’t know of anyone who has actually done that, and I suspect that Gibson may just have extrapolated a little from the concept of geocaching. However, it turns out that there are actually people who use GPS systems to make art. Details here.

(And as I have to attend an event in the Presidio in April I’m pleased to see so many cabs there because I’m going to need one to get back to BART afterwards.)

The Artist Hugo

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

I’ve just been spending an hour or so writing an article about the Best Professional Artist Hugo for SFAW (hopefully to be posted tomorrow) and I followed it up by taking my own advice and looking at the Locus Online directory of cover art. I now have a list of people I’m intending to nominate, and given all the fuss about the same people getting nominated each year I through I’d share my picks with you.
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Happy Birthday Sistine Chapel Ceiling

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

One of the world’s most famous works of art is 500 years old this year. Now the thing about the Sistine Chapel ceiling is that normally when we see pictures of it they are just one panel, or even a part of a panel. But today’s article about it in The Independent shows the whole thing. Awesome. Go look.

Santa Has Arrived

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

I got a call from the picture framers this morning, as a result of which our apartment is now much better decorated than it was before. Fabulous timing, I think.

And talking of my favorite artist, it would appear that John is rather inspired by Jeffrey Ford books, because this is awesome.

Anyway, it would appear that Christmas has now officially started chez moi, so I guess I’d better do some cooking. Not that I put any great effort into it with Kevin not here, but as I had to go out anyway I popped into Safeway and collected the fixings for a pork chili flavored with mole sauce and Guinness. If I set it going now, it should be nicely done sometime during tonight’s football game. And it will be even better tomorrow.

Back Home

~ Cheryl

So, here I am back in California, briefly.

There may be some more WFC wrap later, but for now here is John Picacio who, amongst other things, talks about Derek Ford and has a picture of some of those wonderful Elric sketches.

Meanwhile, I have had a major work project dumped on me. I may be less communicative over the next couple of weeks. I will probably be in Boston all next week, but I may also be working 12 hour days.

WFC Art Show

~ Cheryl

I blogged the Art Show Award winners over on SFAW. Here are some personal comments about the art show, as informed by a short tour I have taken under the expert guidance of John Picacio.

Most of the awards I definitely agree with, but there are a few things the judges missed. Bob Eggleton’s winner is by no means the best piece in his collection. I particularly like “Dagon Rising”, but “Cthulhu’s Domain” is also very good. Also, while Todd Lockwood’s winning piece is very good, his “War of Angels” is awesome.

Bodies of work that are particularly impressive include Vincent Villafranca’s sculptures and Heidi Hooper’s art made entirely from dryer lint. Goodness only knows how Heidi manages to get those colors. My drier lint is always dirty gray and, as she says, you can’t dye dust.

You may have noticed that Moebius didn’t get a major award despite being a Guest of Honor. That’s because what he has here isn’t by any means his best work. He has done loads of really good stuff. John introduced him to me, which was a real honor as I’ve been a Moebius fan since reading The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius in Heavy Metal.

There is much happiness here about Derek Ford getting an award. He’s very young still, and looks set to become a major talent. You can expect more proud blogging about his career here.

Oh, and I bought a Picacio! (Not, sadly, one of the Elric-related sketches for which John won the award, but those will all appear in books fairly soon, along with lots more like them. Yay!)

Shaun Tan at Amazon

~ Cheryl

Jeff VanderMeer has an interview with Shaun Tan up on a new blog at Amazon. It contains some interesting material about how The Arrival was developed (and why it took over four years to finish). Jeff says that The Arrival is his favorite book of the year. Obviously it is very different from a conventional novel, which makes it difficult to compare, but I think I’m with Jeff on this one. If there is one book you buy this year, make it The Arrival.