Bluecanvas 14

 


















Happy to have six drawings and an interview in Bluecanvas 14.  As usual, this issue's a great mix, including James Gurney, Robh Ruppel, and Aaron Smith. At Barnes & Noble and other newsstands now, and available shortly from Bluecanvas.com. My thanks to Nozomi Ficklin and all at Bluecanvas.

Zine-Scene.com Interview

Zine-Scene.com highlights Ramshackle Review and interviews me in the debut of their new feature Start-Up Corner. My thanks to editor Richard Mocarski.

rr = metal, etc

Checking in with Ramshackle Review: Fictionaut's Nicolle Elizabeth is clearly onto something. Ramsabbath? Blackshackle? Dude we're so metal.

Also, Ramshackle has a new Fictionaut group. If you're an fnauter, consider joining the fray.

More Fictionaut: My flash Check Engine, first published in Word Riot.

Pamela Wilson

Pamela Wilson, Antechamber of Regret
Oil on Canvas, 42" x 21"

Read Feathered Hopes and Intriguing Dreams: Paintings By Pamela Wilson in Ramshackle Review 1.

Rolling & Tumbling

Robert Plant from a 2007 Rolling Stone interview, on Led Zeppelin's film The Song Remains The Same:

I didn't know it was posing. It's only now with an older head, I go, "Oh, God, did that actually work?" But of course it worked. It was as genuine as the day is long. I didn't preen in front of a mirror. My mother said, "You shouldn't pout, it looks stupid." But I pouted because I wanted to be like, "Come on!" I wanted to be Steve Marriott, for fuck's sake. But in that environment, I was way past all that. I was part of some kind of new animal that included everything you see in that film. And I can't get embarrassed by it. At that point, in the film, I was yet to be twenty-five years old. And the group was dead when I was thirty-two. How can any of us have any critical overview about what we do? We were just on fire, rolling and tumbling — and most of the time, incredibly civil to each other.

Led Zeppelin's 02 Arena show was of course pro-shot and recorded but Jimmy Page seems in no hurry about an official release. In the meantime Wendy Records 2cd boot is the best I've heard.

Tim O'Brien

"The purpose of writing is to enhance mystery, not solve it."

-Tim O'Brien, 1991, from the Artful Dodge interviews archive. Read it here.

Aleta Wynn Yarrow's 'Guardians'

Aleta Wynn Yarrow, Guardians
Acrylic; 18" x 36"

I’ve always enjoyed learning about other artists’ processes. Whatever the media, something nearly always translates, becomes useful, inspires. Recently, I talked with my friend Aleta Wynn Yarrow about her painting Guardians. Here’s some of what she had to say.

Guardians is an intuitive piece that had its genesis in fairy tales and archetypes. I have always loved stories, especially the old stories. There are themes and images that recur, like the number three, a key, a castle, and animals such as the owl, fox and horse. What I set out to do is to paint a narrative painting, not in the sense that it has implied action, but in the sense that it contains archetypes from fairy tales for place, character, and object.

So, there is the night, the cloud, the constellation, the tree and the seed to represent "place." All these symbols have deep layers and resonate in many directions, many dimensions. Night, for instance, is a symbol for refuge, sleep and dreams, for magic and the awakening of the fairy realm, for romance, for mystery, but also for evil and dark forces. Now each of those is just skimming the surface of possibility. One could write a book about the meaning and symbolism of the night. The same is true of the other symbols, particulary "tree."

The "characters" are the birds. Three is the "magic" number: man, woman, child originally, but well adopted by religions over the millenia. In fairy tales, there are always three brothers, or events transpire three times. An artist's magic 3 is, of course, the primary pallette: red, yellow, blue. The "characters" in the painting are a scarlet tanager, a goldfinch, and an indigo bunting. The owl is the guardian, keeper of the key, and symbol of wisdom, intuition, and vision: a sort of artist's muse.

The key is the key to the painting. It is the "object," and the clue that the artist intends more than decoration. In fairy tales, keys open doors to horrors, doors to treasures, and doors to lost loved ones.

You have the pieces and the symbols, but you have no action. That is what you, the viewer must supply. From the vast storehouse of tales in your common memory, from the vast possibility of symbolic meanings, what meaning, what story can you create with the beginning given here? This is what I intended: an illustration for a story yet to be written.

Guardians was painted with matte acrylics on paper mounted onto stretched canvas; size is 18” x 36”.

Aleta is currently working with illustrator Johanna van der Sterre to offer "Nature's Story" wall tiles. These tiles are designed primarily for schools and libraries, and are nature-inspired, combining picture, narrative elements, and words. The project includes both stand-alone murals and series: “Like a picture book,” Aleta says, “on the wall. Children will be able to walk down the hall, reading and touching.”

Aleta’s work will be showcased at West End Gallery, Corning, September 4- October 8. Opening reception is Friday, September 4, 5-7:30. For more, visit westendgallery.net and Aleta’s website, aletayarrow.com.