SAINT’S HALOES AND MOUSE’S EARS PART IV

Or Northern Lights, Baroque Solutions and Back To The Future

Painters of the Northern Renaissance for the most part seemed to have continued as before or simply dropped haloes altogether, rather than trying to adapt them to changing tastes and incorporate them into a perspective-oriented pictural system. With the exception of a handful of artists, nimbi or aureoles seem to be preferred to manhandling cumbersome discs into position.

SAINT’S HALOES AND MOUSE’S EARS PART III

Or Reconciling the Irreconcilable (Or At Least Trying)

The transformation of the halo signals the end of medieval art and the spread of the Renaissance view far more clearly than more commonly examined factors, perspective foremost amongst them. It accompanies the abandonment of several levels of lecture for one dominant system centred on the artist himself; what we see - indeed all we see - is from where he stands. A most interesting shift, both metaphysically and physically.

SAINTS’ HALOES AND MOUSE’S EARS PART II

Or Keeping One’s Halo While Losing One’s Head

Back to saints. Given that one of the essential acts of sainthood is an untimely and occasionally gruesome demise, usually in a vigorous and imaginative fashion, the question arises ; what happens to the halo when the head is lopped off ?

SAINT’S HALOES AND MOUSE’S EARS PART I

Or Putting A Few Things in Perspective

The things we accept visually, rapidly and at face value, are legion. All those things we recognize, that “jump the synapses directly as a code” (as the folks in advertising just love to say), make up probably the majority of what we encounter in our daily lives. (One of the main attractions of travel is to satisfy the yearning to see rather than recognize; conversely, no familiarity at all would probably end up being very tiring or far worse.) I got to wondering about all those things of a varying nature, which we manage to identify effortllessly (likely the product of an umpteenth belated attempt to understand « Kant and the Platypus» by the ineffable and avuncular Eco, effort hardly effortless on my part, at least until I gave up trying yet again…)

For some reason, my thoughts turned to haloes.

MANY MEETINGS

Or the Ins and Outs of Tolkien Fandom

Meeting Tolkien fans is invariably an engaging experience - occasionally delightful, sometimes moving, often a little scary - but never ordinary.

FORGING (MORE) DRAGONS

Or a Few Words From Someone Else About Dragons

Forging Dragons will be out towards the end of the month. Here’s the preface, with the kind permission of the editor, so you won’t need to read it on the way to the checkout.

FORGING DRAGONS

Or Most Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Dragons (Or At Least a Certain Amount)

A new book coming out is always fun, generally as it means the editors involved are happy to coax me from my lair to go sign copies in some far-flung clime.*

THE REQUIREMENT

Or An Unexpected Window on the Renaissance

Upon the discovery of America by the Europeans, an extraordinary document was copied out and carried by Spanish expeditions on their treks into the wilds of the New World. It was called “El Requerimiento”.

Read it through. It’s not too long.

A WORLD (OR TWO) AWAY

Or a Few Days Abroad

I’ve always been leery of conventions in North America - once you’ve given the convention itself the once-over, there’s not a lot to do outside the convention itself, unlike European events where there’s generally much more that’s worthwhile visiting in the city itself.

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

MEET THE AUTHOR

I’ll be giving talk at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Saturday August 23rd, from 8:00 pm to 9: pm

Here’s what I’ve found out about it:
The Art of Illustrating
John Howe’s meticulously crafted illustrations capture the essence of some of the most exciting narratives in the English language. On this illuminating voyage of illustration and design, he discusses his book illustration work on Beowulf and his role as lead artist on The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

SUMMER INSTALLMENT 2

BEOWULF AND THE DRAGON

This illustration was done primarily for the FANTASY ART WORKSHOP, though as usual with me, the circumstances leading up to it are a little more involved. The original idea emerged for the Beowulf Boardgame, but there was no room on the board for a full-size illustration, so it changed and became a small vignette. After, with the deadline running out for the Beowulf book, I decided to do it anyway and include it in the Workshop book. (As it turns out, by a miracle of deadline-bending, it also made it into Beowulf.)

Start the tour

SUMMER INSTALLMENT 1

TOM BADGERLOCK STEP-BY-STEP

Since there are no newsletters planned for the summer, and we consider it’s rather a shame just to go on silent running for a month, we thought it would be pleasant to at least send out something.

FALLING OFF THE EDGE

Or Where Things Are Not Always What They Seem

When I was small, I clearly remember the third or fourth-grade teacher patiently explaining to us how Christopher Columbus proved the Earth was round “like an apple”. (Some illogical and contrary side of me inwardly commented that apples were not round at all, and had stems, but I likely kept that to myself.)

WITCHDANCES, WINTERKINGS AND DRAGONSTONES

Or the Astonishing Visions of Hermann Hendrich

A few months ago, my writer friend Harold came by, on his pilgrimage through Germany, digging up the taproots and ostracons of his family and past. Here in Neuchâtel, we visted the Dürrenmatt Museum (thorougly depressing, a concrete mausoleum) and the Laténium (thoroughly uplifting, with a copy of the Gundestrup Cauldron on display, around which we turned and turned for the longest time, inventing stories to go with it) and got talking about this business of museums and how they reveal so much more than just what they have on display. On his return to Campbell River, he sent me a web link, with the admonition “Check this out.”

LA BAULE (AND BACK AGAIN)

Or the Inverse Proportionality of Expectation

There must be some kind of a law governing the things in which one ends up involved. If the episode on the outskirts of sanity getting my work OUT of Switzerland and INTO France would have had Franz Kafka nodding his approval (and probably taking notes), the actual sojourn in La Baule was pure pleasure.

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Welcome to the NEWS section. Newsletters appear, weather permitting, once a month. Subjects vary, but only according to whim and circumstance. CHRONICLES archives the successive newsletters, OUT & ABOUT announces events and public appearances.

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