{"id":2045,"date":"2005-05-15T09:39:55","date_gmt":"2005-05-15T09:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/?p=2045"},"modified":"2020-09-25T08:39:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:39:53","slug":"attention-wet-paint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/attention-wet-paint\/","title":{"rendered":"Attention: Wet Paint"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or Thoughts from the Damp Side<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I love walking in the rain.<\/p>\n

It does bring back indelible memories of the paper route boy I was in elementary school –\u00a0 rain-spotted glasses and jeans clinging to thighs – and the farmer\u2019s kid – wet through in calving season, drenched and running after the wagon racing for the barn with the last bales before a storm.<\/p>\n

In New Zealand, my favourite days for strolling the beach were those when inclement weather had driven all but the hardiest of creatures indoors. Not only could I have it all to myself, but the light and was always astonishing. There would only ever be one other person outdoors – Alan Lee, equally soaked and beaming (but then he\u2019s English, and from Devon, so no weather is too foul for him).<\/p>\n

The absolute treat is rain and sun together. (Artfully obtained behind our kitchen, where, in the tiny space between house and hedge, where I\u2019ve planted ferns and ivy beneath the magnolia, I can turn the garden hose on fine spray and make my own private rainstorm. The neighbours just shrug, they already know they have an eccentric in their midst.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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A rain-filled landscape is like strolling in a watercolour before it dries. It\u2019s those wonderful bright pebbles you used to pick up as a kid from a stream or a beach, that become just dusty lumps of rock. The way wet leaves catch the light is more akin to what happens on the troubled surface of a lake than in a forest. Each suspended drop of water, whether in the air or on a branch or blade of grass is light in liquid form.<\/p>\n

So when I\u2019m out wandering in the rain, I\u2019m just outside trying to find my way into the next painting before it dries.<\/p>\n

In Others\u2019 Words<\/strong>
\nOccasionally I end up engaged in wonderful exchanges about just about every subject. And, usually out of my depth, and ever eager to let others do the talking for me, I\u2019ve asked Jane Frank<\/a> if I could reproduce a portion of one of her letters. (Jane, by the way, for want of a better term, is a \u201cvoice\u201d in modern fantasy art, so when she speaks, I tread water and listen attentively.)<\/p>\n

To Paint or To Program? The Digital Divide in Art<\/strong><\/p>\n

On websites and bios I now see sf\/f artists listing their computer skills and mastery of digital programs and applications, in additon to, or in place of, information pertaining to \u201cmedia used\u201d\u00a0 . . .
\nMy personal feeling is that no one will care about what programs they used except as a piece of arcane and perhaps trivial \u2018historical\u2019 information.\u00a0 Somewhat comparable to caring about whether Durer used this or that size pen nib, but with the added problem of having the equipment be outdated within 3 years …so that future artists will be unable to view, let alone reproduce, the technique.\u00a0 Brushes, pen nibs, pencils, pastels\u2026these are part of our everyday vocabulary, not least of which because we\u2019ve been grinding and manufacturing certain art products for centuries, and using them in much the same way\u2026\u00a0 But whatever program artists are using now, will be \u201cancient history\u201d by the time my book comes out, so the descriptions in detail re: their techniques and methods will need to be compressed into a few explanatory words.\u00a0 In just a short while even the very names of the programs will be foreign to those who read them.\u00a0 Like saying you used a Commodore Amiga\u2026.Remember the Atari\u2026.Wang office stations?\u00a0 remember hypercards and WYSIWYG (does that mean anything to you?)\u00a0 Even Mac users today don\u2019t remember that one, the fundamental selling point for Apple computers! (\u201cwhat you see is what you get\u201d)\u00a0 And that was just the 1980s!!!\u00a0 Now they\u2019re saying the ordinary CD has a shelf life of 3 months before it starts to disintegrate.\u00a0 But even with permanent media, you\u2019ll need the equivalent of a record player that can play 78s\u2014a reel to reel tape player\u2026.an 8 track\/beta\/16 mm projector\u2026.in just 3 years.\u00a0 How many curators in museums are stocking up on old computers and programs so that 20 years from now they can see what artists today are creating?\u00a0 Yeah, right.\u00a0 ……. all I can say for sure, right now, is that for this generation of freelancers, at least, book covers will end up being the ONLY life their artwork will ever know\u2026.the only documentable existence these artworks will ever have.\u00a0 If the books don\u2019t survive (and you may be aware of how transient the paper used today is\u2026.the cheapest possible for paperbacks) then neither will the art.\u00a0 for there\u2019s nothing else\u2026they will not be discovered in tombs, or live on in museum basements or private collections \"wink\"\u00a0 Like old movies, someone may care about the best of them to preserve them, colorize them, and distribute them to fans who are nostalgic\u2026but otherwise\u2026they will be gone, never to be seen again unless someone has the book.\u00a0 And by the time we figure out who WAS the best of the digital artists, and a way to preserve the images beyond the shelf-life ….it will be too late to preserve the majority of them.\u00a0 Like nitrate cels\u2026pre-40s cartoons.\u00a0 Like body suits made of latex rubber.\u00a0 Disintegrating\u2026We\u2019ll be left with whatever random \u2018files\u2019 survived, and like Russian icons\u2026all we\u2019ll know about them will be based on those precious few that somebody treasured.\u00a0 Not because they were the best, but because that\u2019s all we\u2019ve got.\u00a0 A whole business could be invented, just to \u2018read\u2019 the old files\u2026.experts that (like archeologists) are trained to carefully sift through through the dirt, to find the shards.
\nJane Frank, May 2005<\/p>\n

Paris in the Spring<\/strong><\/p>\n

What better place to spend a day or two in the spring?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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From left to right: exhibition poster, invitation – front and back.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be having a little gallery show at a modestly proportioned but wonderfully well located gallery in the \u00cele Saint-Louis, in Paris. No, NOT Tolkien for once (I heard what you were thinking, but that\u2019s for the show in Carouge in June.) and only a couple of dozen pieces, BUT\u2026
\nWe will be doing some really nice and very limited prints for the show.
\nThese will be Elf Fantastic<\/a>, Celtic Myth<\/a> and Lancelot<\/a>.
\nThese will ONLY be available from Arludik. For more news – formats, prices and other information- call +33 1 43 26 19 22 or write to Diane at contacts@arludik.com<\/a>
\nYear of the Dragon<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be having a new calendar coming out for 2006 from Avalanche Publishing<\/a> in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you like dragons, I\u2019m often asked. How can I NOT madly love dragons, I have to reply. Creatures the size of a 747, with wings and claws and scales and horns, of every conceiveable shape and origin, and that breath fire besides? Far too exciting to pass up.
\nDragons have accompanied mankind since the beginning;\u00a0 paragons of wisdom and symbols of immortality, they are no less the embodiment of evil darkness that inhabits us all. They soar against the stars, and they tunnel and writhe in darkness, hoarding treasure or gnawing at the roots of the universe. Mythical heroes hunt them mercilessly, modern heroes ride them to battle or aspire to become one of their race.
\nDragons will be with us, in all their diversity, for a long time to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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There\u2019s no new work in this one, but quite a number of the pictures are from my ill-fated \u201cA Diversity of Dragons\u201d book with Anne McCaffrey, so I\u2019m happy to see them in print again.
\nFlotsam & Jetsam<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know I\u2019ve posted this kind of picture once before, but this is typical of the rampart of documentation behind which I find the freedom to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Needless to say, it means treading carfefully, both figuratively and physically\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or Thoughts from the Damp Side I love walking in the rain. It does bring back indelible memories of the paper route boy I was in elementary school –\u00a0 rain-spotted glasses and jeans clinging to thighs – and the farmer\u2019s kid – wet through in calving season, drenched and running after the wagon racing for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[114,493],"class_list":["post-2045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","tag-dragons","tag-studio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PY8Y-wZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}