Strike Anywhere

I've always enjoyed the visual language of the small, disposable matchbook cover. I don't collect them, it seems pointless, but I am never not astounded by the striking imagery and visual appeal of a really good matchbook cover design. It's a pay-for-production job, undoubtedly, at least when matchbook cover design was an important part of a business's image. Before the internet, it was a marketing tool to spread the word around about your establishment. Even if it didn't reflect the decor of your bar or business, a striking logo or enticing image would draw folks to check out your place. And for the designer, it was a task with substantial limitations; you had to keep the colors few, the lettering readable and the image obvious. Too fancy and it would be cost prohibitive, too noisy and it wouldn't be legible, too dull and it wouldn't be worth the cost of the overhead.

I highly recommend checking out this flickr album of vintage matchbook covers from around the world, put together by Jane McDevitt. It features over 2900 quality scans of vintage matchbooks from around the globe, containing some of the most beautiful spot illustrations you might find anywhere. Definitely worth a perusal!

Cráneo de vaquero

"Cráneo de vaquero" colored pencil on paper

I've never been very skilled with colored pencils as a medium. I guess the same could be said about other mediums as well, but I've been watching some tutorials and trying to get more into it, since I got a spiffy new box of colored pencils from my employer recently. This was a simple layering exercise, blended with some nail polish remover. Still some trouble areas to work the kinks out of, like pulling darker shadows out of the greens without making them too muddy or adding black, which sort of grays everything up. 

Expressionist, Surrealist, Adventurist - Three Inspirational Artists

I'm back! Yes, it's been a while, but after straightening out some things I am back on the Blogger train  with the planned itinerary of stopping to post twice a week. If I have anything to say or show, that is. I thought I'd drop a little art history visual inspiration here today. There's no thematic rhyme or reason for the content beyond the fact that they are particular pieces or works of artists that I really enjoy.


PAUL KLEE

Paul Klee "Flußbaulandschaft" 1924

Paul Klee "Fool In Trance (Narr In Trance)" 1929 

Paul Klee "Der goldene fisch" 1925

Paul Klee "Schwartzer Herold (Black Herold)" 1924

There are a number of things that pull me in to Klee's work. I'm fascinated by the combination of the expressionist and cubist styles that he was a student of, along with what appears to be a fascination or love of primitive art. For example, the figures in "Der goldene fisch" seem to have the simplistic form reduction common to expressionist art, but the piece also appears very reminiscent of figural representations and patterning seen on Polynesian tapa cloth pieces. Some of the representational codification of nature and common objects seen in "Flußbaulandschaft" look very much like the visual language utilized in cave paintings and rock etchings of ancient peoples. I'm not an expert on the Bauhaus movement or even on Klee's work specifically by any means, but I've read that he had a very dry sense of humor and it was supposed to be evident in his painting. I can definitely read a sense of whimsey in his compositions. There's a timelessness to it as well. It seems to me that his "Schwartzer Herold" could easily have adorned the sign hanging in front of a Greenwich Village coffee house in the late 1950s, or been the logo for some English instrument manufacturer. 

REMEDIOS VARO

Remedios Varo "Phenomenon" 1963

Remedios Varo "Naturaleza muerta resucitando (Still Life Resurrecting)" 1963

Remedios Varo "Les feuilles mortes (Dead Leaves)" 1956

Remedios Varo "Música Solar (Solar Music)" 1955

Remedios Varo "Vampiros Vegetarianos" 1962

Remedios Varo is, hands down, one of my all-time favorite artists working in any visual medium, period. I could full a blank book as thick as a major metropolitan's Yellow Pages with everything I might have to say about the woman and her work, but to keep things short and to the point, her mixing of supernatural speculation, fabricated folkloric imagery, and humorous-yet-disturbing surrealist fancy make the perfect artistic stew for my eyes and brain to chew on.

EARL NOREM

Earl Norem "Surf Pack Assassins" from MALE magazine, Aug. 1967.

Earl Norem "The 5 Wild Wife Swap Party Games" interior of TRUE MAN
magazine, May 1962. 

Earl Norem "Mars Attacks" 1994

When those familiar even vaguely with the subject think of pulp adventure magazines and early paperback artwork for action, science-fiction, horror and fantasy novels, the names Richard Powers, Robert McGinnis and Norman Saunders all come to mind. Perhaps more prolific, though shamefully less known amongst the layman, is Earl Norem. If you grew up admiring the enticing blister card artwork on your Masters Of The Universe and G.I. Joe action figures, or were drawn to thumb through or purchase the large treasury edition comics in the 1970's and 80's featuring the likes of Conan The Barbarian or Marvel's supernatural-leaning output, then you are already familiar with Earl. In the 1950's and 60's, he was all over the newsstand with Men's pulp magazines, drawing readers in with his exciting covers which often oversold the content within, and made much of the fluff inside more enticing with his black and white interior illustrations. After the pulp era transitioned into the comic book market, Earl kept busy with covers and trading cards. Even into the 1990s, Mr. Norem was creating pop art promotion for film and television tie-ins with magazine covers and order-through-comic book bedroom posters featuring licensed materials the likes of The Six Million Dollar Man, Planet Of The Apes, Mars Attacks and Alien. Were you an early Dungeons & Dragons player? Then you were privy to Earl's illustrations as well. Seen by most as kitsch or disposable commercial window dressing, I for one have a whole lot of respect for the craft and talent portrayed in his work. Not to mention the subject matter!