\nIn her own words:
\n\u201cLooking for more information on fantasy novelist Jan Siegel? Want to know the low-down on the comic mind behind the novels of Jemma Harvey? Or whether or not Amanda Hemingway is any relation to Ernest? You\u2019ve come to the right place, because these are all pen names of Amanda Hemingway (except Ernest). Amanda lives in a county town near the south coast of England, eats, sleeps, rides horses and writes novels.\u201d<\/p>\n
I discovered Amanda\u2019s work a decade or so ago. Alan Lee had done the cover artwork for first of a trilogy called \u201cProspero\u2019s Children\u201d while he was living in New Zealand – working evenings and weekends, and when Tome II came along the following year, he didn\u2019t feel he could manage it. So, the commissioning editor at HarperCollins called me up and asked if I could work in Alan\u2019s inimitable style. It was the first time I\u2019d been asked to do a fake Alan Lee, so of course I promptly turned it down. The editor came back, and I turned it down again (but a little less promptly this time). I accepted on the third try, and am very glad I did.
\nThe borders and frames Alan did remain the same. (They took me ages to figure out and reproduce, since they had been tinkered about with to make them fit the spine width.) Armed with a layout from the editor, I filled in the blank bits, trying my best to do, if not a fake Lee, at least something in the same spirit.
\nMy only regret: standing in front of the \u201cAlan Lee Originals\u201d drawer in HarperCollins\u2019 London offices and upon being asked if I\u2019d like to borrow Alan\u2019s original for reference, I foolishly replying (stupid me!!!) \u201cNo, a colour photocopy would do just fine.\u201d What WAS I thinking? it could be on my wall now\u2026<\/p>\n
Amanda has a new book coming out soon, so is immersed in rewrites, corrections and proofing, but somehow found the time and kindly dashed off a text. (In her own words: \u201cAny excuse to pontificate.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Of Human Bonding<\/strong><\/p>\n Where does art originate? In the human brain. Nature can present vistas of extraordinary beauty \u2013 sunsets, waterfalls, landscapes of ice or sand \u2013 and exquisite details \u2013 the heart of a flower or the magnification of a snowflake \u2013 but these are fortuitous, the hand of chance, or God.\u00a0 The deliberate creation of beauty for its own sake is a human concept. We take nature and superimpose our inner vision on it, twisting, tweaking, colouring and discolouring. Effectively, we take on God\u2019s role \u2013 or chance\u2019s \u2013 making our own worlds in the image of our thought. Amanda Hemingway, London, June 3, 2009<\/em> Have finally begun collecting my thoughts on the whirlwind trip I made to China two months ago. (Or perhaps gleaning is a more apt word – my thoughts were scattered far and wide.) Since things in threes are so popular nowadays, I\u2019ve broken it down into three parts (and put in lots and loads of photos). Starting June 30th. Guillermo del Toro will be signing<\/a> at the Weta Cave on June 17th, and my earstwhile colleague Alan Lee will be doing the same<\/a> only three days later, on the 20th.<\/p>\n Also, people staring intently at something that\u2019s been covered up so you can\u2019t make it out\u2026 More information (but not a lot more) on the latest news<\/a> at the Weta Workshop web site.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nWe see beauty in many strange things, notably ourselves. In fact, to an animal, or an alien, the human body must appear a bizarre piece of design, unattractive when naked and deeply impractical.\u00a0 Most of our hair is only on the top of our heads, possibly protecting our brains \u2013 but then, why would Darwinian jungle law not deselect baldness? Our skin keeps the rain out and the blood in, but that\u2019s about it. It burns in the sun, freezes in the cold, and is easily punctured, offering no protection whatsoever against enemy attack. Our genitalia are upfront and exposed. We need to steal skins from other creatures to keep warm and decorate ourselves to attract a mate. In short, our anatomy is a canvas, on which we imprint our artistic ideas. Fashion, cosmetics, hair-styling, jewellery, tattoos and body painting \u2013 all this is art. We use it to express our personality in ways which may be individualistic, eccentric, socially conformist, or merely practical.
\nBut forgetting art for the moment, let\u2019s look at what the human physiognomy is actually for.\u00a0 Nature never does anything by accident, and even with humans, who take none of Nature\u2019s gifts on trust, she has given us a model that, despite its oddity, is the best for the job. Working with us, when we chose to stand on our hind legs \u2013 a reckless move at the time \u2013 she tapered our bodies and helped to perfect the dexterity of our hands. She also realised that as top competitors in the evolution race we had one major problem. Having left all the other species pretty much on the starting line, we were forced to compete with \u2013 ourselves. While this is healthy it is also hazardous, and could have led to species annihilation, as indeed it still might.\u00a0 But alongside competition our survival depends on cooperation, and there our sensitive, fragile epidermis comes into its own.\u00a0 In our touchy-feely society skin makes the slightest contact far more intimate than casual gestures between creatures covered in fur or scales. The handshake, the kiss of greeting, the caress, whether sensual or merely friendly \u2013 all these things create bonds and transmit multiple messages. And our faces, those funny faces with their forward-staring eyes, short noses, random tufts of hair in unexpected places \u2013 they too are all about one thing: communication.\u00a0 With forty-two facial muscles and an incredible variety of sizes and shapes in the layout of bone and feature, we immediately focus on the face of an opponent or companion in a way that does not happen in the animal kingdom.\u00a0 Where an animal has markings, we have expressions \u2013 expressions that are sometimes graphic, sometimes subtle and minimalist.\u00a0 A tiger will snarl and bare his teeth in threat; a human may merely narrow his eyes. Those pointless eyebrows can be lifted and wrinkled and kinked (although the use of Botox has done much to limit this ability). Nostrils can flare or pinch, noses twitch, lips shape not only words but smiles, pouts, sneers, grimaces.\u00a0 We have the perfect design for our own survival \u2013 everything we need to reach out to each other and create a society of multi-level collusion.
\nIt is a function of art \u2013 if art has a function \u2013 that it, too, contributes to collective understanding.\u00a0 When we look at a painting, we can see through the artist\u2019s eyes, share his vision. He can bring our dreams and fantasies to life, show us the big picture, or the smallest detail, which we might not otherwise have seen. Whether we are looking at dragons and demons, pickled sharks, or formless surfaces of colour and texture, the artist has opened his mind to us and through the chink his world and ours meld. The earliest paintings would tell the story of the hunt to those who hadn\u2019t been there, and for those who had the picture made memory more enduring.\u00a0 Later, the artist portrayed historical events, giving them the required political spin. Legend grew from fact, religion blended with authenticity, beauty was truth, truth beauty, and gradually art shaped the way we see ourselves and our whole society. God reached out to touch the hand of Man, and Michelangelo Buonarotti captured the moment. Art gave us an identity, a culture, a united vision. The vision has grown infinitely more complex as new forms of media evolve and we become more sophisticated, but though the definition of art has expanded its role has not changed. Art isn\u2019t just about who we are, it is who we are. It binds us together: one species, one world, and a million million imaginations.<\/p>\n
\nOUT AND (RATHER QUICKLY) ABOUT<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nAND IN THE MEANTIME\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
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