042822e

Dragon with Fish
(a children's ekphrastic poem)*


Such a fat, friendly stripy dragon,
antennae half its body length,
big feet and a goofy grin,
itty bitty wings—no way she could fly,
but there she is, above the clouds,
frolicking with a winged fish, and one
with a head-mounted propellor;
but the cat with a jet pack
decided not to hang around.

Far below, fields in summer colors,
stripes of green, orange, red, and yellow,
delicious crops, I’m sure,
but I don’t know what they’re growing,
those people who live
in the red-roofed farmhouse.


*Ekphrastic poems are based on works of visual art. This one, by my wife, Sheila Kopaska-Merkel, is a colored-pencil drawing above my desk.)

050720f

Mosaique--a bilingual website devoted to Covid-19 in the arts. Includes a bit by me.

https://jeanpierrecoiffey.wixsite.com/mosaique/copie-de-elisabeth-nee-francaise-en

031520

Mars doesn't have trees
leave the wood carving tools
and Lemon Pledge

120518c

Contents and covers for many DN issues

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7492386416729084026&pli=1#editor/target=page;pageID=867254227940383783;onPublishedMenu=pages;onClosedMenu=pages;postNum=5;src=pagename

101118b

Inktober
I write haiku
to the graphic prompts

072818

cow-dung sculptures
shimmer in 3-digit sun
look for new homes

020818b

finding a child's drawing
and wishing I had written on the back
the artist's name

110517

Kiddography, by Tom Kidd. Autobiography of the artist, with pictures. You want to get rid of it just cos you don't read it anymore?! A friend made a coffee table out of art books. No one could ever read them.

052817b

DN 107 is complete, except for a cover. I need an illustration. It can be in color, but it needs to look good in B&W on a digest-sized page. Any SF or fantasy subject. You can see many examples from past issues on pages associated with this blog. I can only pay $12+2 copies, I'm sorry to say. Deadline July 15th.

040817c

DCAF '17

Saw Tony Tavis, colleague turned folk artist. His work has gotten funkier. Bought this.

Awesome AUUction

030517b

Hanging pictures

030317c

Yesterday, in the process of looking for something else, my wife found a sheaf of 8.5 x 11 pages stapled in one corner. It was a book made by one of our children, probably about the age of one. We don't know who made it; it wasn't signed. Each page bore some sort of halfhearted scribble with a ballpoint pen. At first I was like "aw, our kids' art!" But then I remembered that(a)" we don't know who made it and (b) more importantly, they both told us we needed to get rid of junk, so they won't have to do it later (that's not exactly how they phrased it). So we recycled it.

121916

unsigned drawings
yellow at the edges
which daughter

081716

each peak a carven face
the range a Close-like figure
we all know

A few DN covers from yesteryear

073016

The Portrait of Donald Trump


Looked younger every day,
Treated all the other portraits,
Landscapes and still lives too,
As if they had worth,
Deserved respect and wall space,
Imbued their canvasses with light,
Love, and dignity,
Scowled at its original when he walked past,
As much as a portrait can, anyway .

071016

A reprinted review

Miller, Ron, 2014, The Art of Space, Zenith Press, ISBN 978-0-7603-4656-3, hardback, 224 pages, 350 color photos, $35.

The latest speculative fiction coffee-table book is mostly art, I guess on the theory that most people don't read the words in coffee-table books anyway. My wife, the artist, wouldn't like this book: she likes to read the words too. I, on the other hand, am often perfectly happy flipping through to the next illustration. In The Art of Space you don't have to flip far. There are more color illustrations than pages by quite a lot. The book's coverage starts back in the 19th century and goes until I'm not sure when, but at least into the 80s. The pictures are reproduced at a comfortable size, so the reader can really appreciate why they were chosen for the book. [For those who want explanations, they're here. They are wit's very soul.]

The title, The Art of Space, is something of a misnomer. Many of the paintings and drawings depict astronomical objects, but most come from works of science fiction. The first illustrated page involves astronomy alone, but the next includes a moon base and a space station. So, this is space, but not the space you will find on the NASA website (another thing you should check out, but I digress).

I can criticize the choices Miller made about which artists to lift up and affirm. Chesley Bonestell of course deserves a place of honor, but what about Kelly Freas? In the 60s, when I started reading grown-up SF, he was everywhere! His cartoony covers were my introduction to space art, not the super realistic paintings that Chesley Bonestell had made a generation earlier. If that doesn't tell you right there that I was reading my father's copies of Analog magazine at the age of 10, you know it now. Other artists of space include John Schoenherr, and I don't think any of his work made it into this compilation. But The Art of Space is a comprehensive book, the fact that he covers the field pretty well while ignoring several artists that I'm familiar with, just shows you how many people were doing high-quality work.

The pages are thick and glossy, a more than suitable medium for the reproduction of magazine and book covers. I think if your drunk holiday guests spill beer on this book it won't be ruined. Tthat is no small benefit.

My favorites are the views of worlds from the surfaces of their satellites. These were early Bonestell masterpieces and they made his reputation. These make it easy to visualize living in space. Even the ones that don't contain any science of human habitation. I also really enjoy the brief section on aliens. Many artists have painted aliens, some well and some not so well. A small section near the end of the book doesn't really do this field justice. However the aliens that have been chosen, including many of the ultra-detailed creatures painted by Wayne Barlowe, make this part of the book a showcase of what can be done, and has been.

I need to hurry up and finish writing this review. I want to give my copy of the book to my 12-year-old nephew. He has the science bug, and I have just about infected him with the science fiction bug as well.

Take a look at this book's price. $35 for a thick, sturdy, beautiful showcase just can't be beat. If you don't want the book for yourself, buy it for your nephew or your niece. You will be the favorite aunt or uncle this year!

1

042716

these tailored bugs
eat only oil paint
art critics

Review- in time for the holidays

Miller, Ron, 2014, The Art of Space, Zenith Press, ISBN 978-0-7603-4656-3, hardback, 224 pages, 350 color photos, $35.

The latest speculative fiction coffee-table book is mostly art, I guess on the theory that most people don't read the words in coffee-table books anyway. My wife, the artist, wouldn't like this book: she likes to read the words too. I, on the other hand, am often perfectly happy flipping through to the next illustration. In The Art of Space you don't have to flip far. There are more color illustrations than pages by quite a lot. The book's coverage starts back in the 19th century and goes until I'm not sure when, but at least into the 80s. The pictures are reproduced at a comfortable size, so the reader can really appreciate why they were chosen for the book. [For those who want explanations, they're here. They are wit's very soul.]

The title, The Art of Space, is something of a misnomer. Many of the paintings and drawings depict astronomical objects, but most come from works of science fiction. The first illustrated page involves astronomy alone, but the next includes a moon base and a space station. So, this is space, but not the space you will find on the NASA website (another thing you should check out, but I digress).

I can criticize the choices Miller made about which artists to lift up and affirm. Chesley Bonestell of course deserves a place of honor, but what about Kelly Freas? In the 60s, when I started reading grown-up SF, he was everywhere! His cartoony covers were my introduction to space art, not the super realistic paintings that Chesley Bonestell had made a generation earlier. If that doesn't tell you right there that I was reading my father's copies of Analog magazine at the age of 10, you know it now. Other artists of space include John Schoenherr, and I don't think any of his work made it into this compilation. But The Art of Space is a comprehensive book, the fact that he covers the field pretty well while ignoring several artists that I'm familiar with, just shows you how many people were doing high-quality work.

The pages are thick and glossy, a more than suitable medium for the reproduction of magazine and book covers. I think if your drunk holiday guests spill beer on this book it won't be ruined. Tthat is no small benefit.

My favorites are the views of worlds from the surfaces of their satellites. These were early Bonestell masterpieces and they made his reputation. These make it easy to visualize living in space. Even the ones that don't contain any science of human habitation. I also really enjoy the brief section on aliens. Many artists have painted aliens, some well and some not so well. A small section near the end of the book doesn't really do this field justice. However the aliens that have been chosen, including many of the ultra-detailed creatures painted by Wayne Barlowe, make this part of the book a showcase of what can be done, and has been.

I need to hurry up and finish writing this review. I want to give my copy of the book to my 12-year-old nephew. He has the science bug, and I have just about infected him with the science fiction bug as well.

Take a look at this book's price. $35 for a thick, sturdy, beautiful showcase just can't be beat. If you don't want the book for yourself, buy it for your nephew or your niece. You will be the favorite aunt or uncle this year!

David C. Kopaska-Merkel
1300 Kicker Rd.
Tuscaloosa AL 35404
jopnquog@gmail.com