![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Wizardology1-port.jpg\" "\\"Wizardology1-port\\"")
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I think I have it figured out.
\nI should imagine those people with vocations occasionally sit down and say to themselves just why did I embark at that particualr port for a lifelong trip. (Usually like pondering comes in heavy seas, when you just can\u2019t remember where that life vest is stored.)
\nNaturally, at my age, there is nothing else I know how to do, so any to-be-or-not-to-being is a conceit and little more.
\nNonetheless, it seems we are doomed to try to make sense of things.
\nGiven that the only glimmer of sensitivity I posses is in the point of my pencil or brush, drawing or painting the world is simply a way of giving it meaning.<\/p>\n
My life lines are not on my hands, they are in my sketchbooks<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A QUESTION OF CULTURE<\/p>\n
Like all nations, Switzerland is continually asking itself how it can profitably export culture abroad. Being rather an island in the midst of the European Union, stormy seas await these attempts. Within the European Union, artwork can travel freely.
\nWith a little culture of my own – the artwork from La Ville Abandonn\u00e9e – about to turn up at the Swiss border, it seemed wise to contact the authorities to make sure all would go smoothly.<\/p>\n
After a lenghty preamble, where I explained that a batch of my originals were returning to Switzerland after being shown in France and Belgium, here is one of the conversations I had with one of the customs offices\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it exactly you do for a living sir?\u201d
\nIllustrator. I illustrate books.\u201d
\nComics, then?\u201d
\n\u201cNo, books, children\u2019s books, that sort of thing.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat do you do for a living?\u201d
\n\u201c?\u201d
\nYour profession, sir.\u201d
\n\u201cBut I just told you, you deaf person you, ILL-US-TRA-TOR!!!!! People are actually crazy enough to pay me to sit at home and doodle, as unbelievable as that may sound.\u201d No, I only thought that and embarked on a lengthy explanation of the history of illustration from neolithic times to today.<\/p>\n
Once that was resolved, we got back to the heart of the matter.
\n\u201cAre these paintings signed?\u201d
\n\u201cNo, I only sign one image per book, otherwise the signature is annoying to the reader. They aren\u2019t really paintings, they\u2019re book illustrations\u201d
\n\u201cBut these paintings are your work.\u201d
\n\u201cYes sir, mine indeed.\u201d
\n\u201cBut if you don\u2019t sign them, how can you prove they are yours?\u201d
\nAnother lengthy explanation of why I rarely have to prove my pictures are mine, and skirting the temptation to say more than I should.
\n\u201cThese paintings were done in Switzerland.\u201d
\n\u201cYes sir, I live and work here in your fine country.\u201d (Okay, I didn\u2019t say \u201cyour fine country\u201d.)
\n\u201cCan you prove they were done in Switzerland, do they have a \u201cSwiss Made\u201d stamp or identifying mark?\u201d
\n\u201cWell I\u2019m not going to paint a poya in the corner of every picture, if that\u2019s what you mean.\u201d (All my most scathing retorts remain unspoken. And probably wisely so.)
\n\u201cThese picures, they have a market value?\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019d like to think so, though I don\u2019t sell them.\u201d
\n\u201cWell, how do you make your living then?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyway, after being scolded for letting my artwork leave the country without a declaration, it turns out that any artist (in this case, me!) can import his or her own work regardless of value, exempt of all tax and duties.
\nSo Switzerland is an accessible island after all. Shame there aren\u2019t more beaches.
\nWIZARDOLOGY<\/p>\n
I have a few pencil sketches in the upcoming book \u201cWizardology\u201d from Templar Publishing<\/a>.
\nHere\u2019s a page from the catalogue; the book will be out this autumn.<\/p>\n
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