I’d never seen this particular edition of The Catcher in the Rye before. That’s probably because it’s one of the 250+ entries for 50 Watts’ Polish Book Cover Contest.
Cover design by Randy McKee
A Polish Rye
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Category Archives: Drawing & Illustration
An Afternoon with Marsh, Sayers & Albertus Seba
A spread from Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities
Not much to report today, actually, but I thought it might be nice to give signs of life. I’ve been exhausted all week and sleeping unseemly hours. My dad phones for my pre-arranged wake-up call in the morning, I thank him and say I’ll be right up, fully intending to do so, but then am dragged under and go back to sleep till the middle of the afternoon, which means I’ve hardly seen any daylight. I’d say ‘please don’t tell him’, only he reads this blog and I would have told him sooner or later anyway. I’m sure it’s just a passing thing and soon enough I’ll have overdosed on sleep and be up before the sun. Or so I (sort of) hope.
I plowed through my first Ngaio Marsh mystery, Artists in Crime, which was admittedly very short, only to discover, to my dismay that I had gotten an abridgement by mistake. Darn! And how I do scrupulously try to avoid those silly things. Truth be told, I found the story so convoluted and hard to follow that I’m not sure I’d have wanted to stick to it for that much longer. For all I know, maybe it was confusing precisely because it was abridged; I guess I’ll never know. I’m not letting that influence my opinion on this new-to-me author and contemporary of Agatha Christie known for her very own darker style; I’ve got Overture to Death in my audio library to look forward to.
Another audiobook I plowed through today was Whose Body? by another Mistress of Crime, Dorothy L. Sayers, who is also a new discovery for me. I was plugged into the amusing evah-so-English Lord Peter Wimsey mystery most of the afternoon and evening and kept listening as I started a drawing and nearly finished it in watercolours. It’s a piece I’m doing for the Visual Arts Centre, where I take my art classes. They’re having a gala event where they’ll be selling art donated by the more advanced students and professional artist, the profits of which will go to the school, which is a not for profit organization. I put off the project practically till the last-minute (big surprise!), as we have to hand-in our finished pieces on Monday, but I intend to make two more versions over the weekend and choose the best of the three. In case the piece doesn’t sell and I get to keep it, I’ve done a watercolour which fits into a series I started based on Albertus Seba‘s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities (1734-1765), a book which I acquired recently for the purposes of this project and which is an absolute treasure-trove of visual inspiration. I’ve taken some photos of the previous pieces I’ve worked on and will photograph this new batch to include in a post I’ll put together some time this week to put on my art blog.
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Chinoiseries
My mum sent me the above image link today, which I of course hurriedly followed up on. They have a beautiful selection of children’s and young adult illustrated books; their French byline translates to “Illustrated literature for children, or all those who have been children”. This publishing house based in France has a mandate to promote multiculturalism and as such, pairs Chinese texts and stories with French illustrators in the creation of their titles. I was pleased to discover that I had already picked up one of their books, a sublime affair illustrated by Agata Kawa, called Tigre le dévoué (The Devoted Tiger). You’ll find my short review and some image samples below. I’ve now reserved another one of their titles which I found at the library called Yin la jalouse (Jealous Yin), which will be an introduction for me to the work of illustrator Bobi + Bobi; click on the links to have a look at their sites, which are brimming with wonderful examples of their work. Continue reading
A Miracle on Egypt Street
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo ★★★★★
(Read for Children’s & YA July… in August)
Edward Tulane is a beautiful rabbit made in France with a delicate china face, moveable china limbs and real rabbit fur ears and tail who measure about three feet tall from his feet to the tips of his ears. He belongs to a little girl living on Egypt Street in an indeterminate town in an indeterminate time. He can’t move on his own, but every morning, Abilene, dresses him in one of his sets of fine clothes and winds his golden pocket watch, then when she comes home from school she brings him to the dinner table to eat with the family, and sets him down to sleep in his own little bed by her bedside at night. Edward has every reason to feel proud, for he truly is a beautiful rabbit, but he’s also self-centred to the point of not caring about anyone, so he’s not much interested in Abilene, nor what she has to say to him, and he rarely bothers to listen to her or to anyone else. Then one day, the unthinkable happens and Edward is lost at sea, where he spends many months stuck with his face in the sand at the bottom of the ocean. He’s eventually fished out by a kind old fisherman who brings him to his wife. The old woman calls him Susanna and makes frilly dresses for him, which Edward finds mortifying of course, but after all that time at sea, he also begins to understand what it means to listen and to love, until he loses these people too. And as Edward travels from owner to owner, as he journeys from cozy loving home to a garbage dump, to various hobo camps, through a stint as a scarecrow (the horror) to the arms of a dying little girl, to a near-death experience, he eventually learns that a heart, in order to live and truly love, must be broken again and again. Continue reading
From Aldous Huxley to Missed Connections
The Crows of Pearblossom by Aldous Huxley, illustrated by Sophie Blackall ★★★½
Mr. and Mrs. Crow, who have a nest in a cotton-wood tree in Pearblossom, haven’t had much luck so far when it comes to growing their family. Every time Mrs. Crow has laid an egg, it has disappeared before getting a chance to hatch. When, coming home early from her errands on day, Mrs. Crow catches the rattlesnake who lives at the bottom of the tree eating her latest egg, she tells her husband he must go and kill the snake. Mr. Crow isn’t sure this is a good idea, so he consults his friend Mr. Owl, who comes up with a brilliant plan to teach the snake a lesson he is likely never to forget. A fun and slightly wicked story by the author best known for Brave New World, this was Huxley’s only children’s story, which he wrote as a gift for his niece Olivia, who had moved to Pearblossom, California with her parents. Bright and cheerful illustrations by Sophie Blackall. (click on cover to view larger) Continue reading
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When the Lion Came to Paris
Un Lion à Paris
by Beatrice Alemagna ★★★★★
I had decided to dedicate most of July to reading children’s and young adults books, but then discovered so many great illustrators that were unknown to me before that I decreed this month to be Children’s & YA July…in August. In this original story by Beatrice Alemagna, a lion, bored with his native savannah decides to take a train to Paris. When he arrives and starts touring the city on foot and via the métro, he is surprised and disappointed to discover that nobody seems to notice him. He visits some of the most popular spots of the city, from the Café de Flore in St-Germain Continue reading
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A Tribute to Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud, Girl with Fig Leaf, 1948
Celebrated painter Lucian Freud (grandson of that other Freud), passed away last week at the ripe age of 88, leaving behind an astounding body of work (see the New York Times article here). I’m sad about his passing of course as I’m a big fan of his early drawings which I discovered through a great book I made sure to get my own copy of called Lucian Freud on Paper. I thought I’d do my own kind of tribute by posting an art project I did a while ago (still ongoing) which was inspired by a drawing of his called Girl with Leaves. Just visit here to see what it’s about.
Benjamin Lacombe Presents:
Le carnet rouge by Benjamin Lacombe, illustrated by Agata Kawa ★★★★¾
Read for TIOLI: Read a book by a “hot” author & 11 in 11 Category #4: Visual Arts
Who better than Benjamin Lacombe himself to talk about the genesis of this book for which he put aside his paintbrushes and picked up a pen because he wanted to give illustrator Agata Kawa a project to showcase her personal style. He explains this on his blog (in French and English too!)—in his own words:
“I really wanted [this project] to be made for Agata so she could fully express her talent and love of nature, of the Arts & Crafts movement, patterns, etc. The original idea (Agata’s) was to work on the Arts & Crafts movement and its creator, the emblematic William Morris. So I made up a story which is a kind of imaginary (though well-documented) portrait of this pope of modern design.
[...] Indeed, rather than just piling up dates and facts, the point was to focus on what made William Morris an artist: his background, his love of nature and shapes. It’s a book about the mystery of drawing, of creation.”
Click on the images to view them larger (including cover)
All images © Agata Kawa
I should mention that I borrowed this book from the public library, but now see myself in the obligation to obtain my very own copy so I can pore over it at leisure whenever the mood strikes, as I am not only a newly minted fan of Agata Kawa’s thanks to Lacombe (you will have understood by now that I am a HUGE fan of this young man already), but have always held a fascination for the Arts & Crafts (also known as Art Nouveau), the Pre-Raphaëlite, and William Morris in particular.
This post from Lacombe’s blog features a good sampling of Agata Kawa’s range.
Ok. Yes. I’m an addict.
Nuts. I went a bit nuts. Over a book of course. Ever since a LibraryThing friend posted the following video on her thread (which I promptly posted on this blog), which reminded me how much I love illustrator Benjamin Lacombe‘s work, I’ve been obsessed with the pop-up book, yes*, but, also with another recent project of his; an illustrated version of Snow White, which so far only exists in the original French edition as Blanche Neige. I think I obsessed over the latter more for the very simple reason that it was *hard to get* as not available on the local Amazon or comparative sites, and instead of giving further consideration to other merchants, like an idiot, I went and ordered it on Amazon.fr (France) since the price with shipping seemingly came out to the same as that of the other vendors. Or so I thought. Well it came in two days later via UPS, of course I got hit with duty charges on top of everything, which of course, I was not expecting in the least. Argh. But no matter. The book is gorgeous to behold, large, and extremely well printed on beautiful quality paper. I’ll be posting about it and showing plenty of visuals when I review it, but in the meantime, here’s the cover image just to give you a little nibble:
* now that I’ve reminded myself of the pop-up again, which has been sitting in my Amazon cart ever since that damn video, I’ll have to go and buy it. After all, my birthday is coming up very soon, so I should double treat myself, right? The only thing holding me back is that of course it won’t be the same experience as what we see in the video AT ALL; No animated little bunny trotting about; No flurry of butterflies as I turn the pages; No sound effects with crackling thunder…
although if the weather cooperates… I wonder…
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Clay Soldiers and Korean BBQ
I had a really nice afternoon/evening with my dad today. I wanted to catch the exhibit of the Chinese Terracotta Army before it folds next week. It’s unbearably hot here this week, so I was glad to have suggested a visit to the fine arts museum; an indoor activity in a cool environment. The show was really interesting of course, though there were just a handful of soldiers and horses on display. I didn’t expect to see hundred of them or anything, and they did have several videos showing the sites were they were found to give an idea of the vastness of the enterprise, but I was hoping that there’d be a good grouping of them to get a notion of what it felt like to be confronted with a whole bunch of these giant figurines (2 meters high, or approx 6’6”). What made the exhibit especially fun for me was that I’d thought to bring a sketchbook & pencil and spent some time doing quick studies of some of the pieces I liked best. I should do that every time from now on. (I’ve quickly scanned some pages from my Moleskine to show here. Click on the thumbnails to view them larger.)
We were both ravenous afterward, so went to Bishop street where there are quite a few casual restaurants and a good selection of world cuisine. We decided to go for Korean BBQ, which neither of us had tried before. Our waitress didn’t speak much French nor English, and we were both a bit confused about what to order and how to eat various dishes and condiments, until a lady at the table next to ours came over and very nicely explained everything to us and suggested some dishes too. The BBQs are built into the tables, and you can order from a selection of meats and seafood and veggies, then grill them yourself to your liking. There were all kinds of interesting side dishes and yummy seasonings and we were both quite happy with our meal. I was glad that my dad liked it, because he usually eats at home and makes everything from scratch, including his own flat bread, and is quite strict about what he will and will not eat, so that was nice.
