Halloween Trick or Treat Giveaway and an autumn interview

Two groovy Halloween things to announce...first, the annual Trick or Treat Giveaway is under way from the Halloween Artist Bazaar! There is a crazy amount of really cool stuff available and it's really easy to enter. Just click the link and follow the instructions, then sit back and wait for the spooky goodies to roll in! I have a print available as part of the package. Basically, you just need to check out and "like" the HAB Facebook page, send a "trick or treat" convo to one of the participating Etsy sellers and fill out a couple of fields in a form on the giveaway page. Couldn't be easier! You have until Oct. 20 to do all this, but click now so you don't forget! ;)

 "A Dark and Dreary Day," above, is the print that I have included in the giveaway.

Also, the folks at HAB were kind enough to feature an interview with me on the site this month, talking about Halloween and what it means to me.

At the moment I'm mostly working on some black and white sketching and pen and ink stuff for my own amusement, but I will have more new seasonal art up before long, as well as some of these pen and ink drawings, most likely. The doodling started when I had jury duty on Monday (I didn't get picked) and I spent the whole time working on learning tatting, and drawing. I plan to keep on doing both of those things, of course.

My Autumn reading this year includes, so far, the book "Black Magic" by Marjorie Bowen, an occult/supernatural novel from 1909 that already promises to be one of the finest of the genre. Pictured is an original cover but I am reading a public domain ebook. I can't say enough good things about the availability of previously scarce texts. I'm linking below to manybooks.net, which is a safe and reputable site, but make sure you click on the link to the book and not onto an ad! They have a whole category for occult writing from pre-1923. What could be better? Also on my reading list are some more works from Ash Tree Press, which I also obtained in ebook form though I also enjoy collecting their paper editions. But for $6.99 each if you need as many ghost stories in your life as I do, the ebook route is probably the most affordable. I get as many of both variety as possible, to ensure year-round ghost story coverage.

Artist feature: Timothy Renner

Above: "The Benefactor"

The featured artist today, Timothy Renner, also happens to be one of my best friends, for the past 10+ years, and I'm featuring his artwork because it -- along with his music -- is what brought us together in friendship and creative partnership. The image you see above is the cover art for the new vinyl LP being released by our band, Stone Breath, this fall -- "The Shepherdess and the Bone White Bird." As mentioned on the label Web site, The LP will come with a lyric booklet containing psychedelic illuminations for each song by Timothy. Many know him for his black and white, pen and ink illustrations, but he has added bright bursts of hypnotic color to his detailed, visionary artwork for this project.

Natural imagery of skulls erupting from dark blossoms, or blazing within a storm of rainbow fire; sacred images of the Shepherdess, amidst falling leaves or globes of light, are among the inspired pieces in this series.

The quiet, intricate world of his art drew me in before I even heard the music, back in the mid-1990s. Trees, leaves, hands, eyes, sheets of paper fluttering in the wind; the moon, rabbits, moths and birds - infused with what was obviously a complex personal mythology drawing on many sources in religion, art and literature, rooted in a deep love and appreciation for the natural world. Like his music, it had a personal quality that affected me immediately and I felt as though I was finally picking up the strands of a conversation begun centuries before. It affected me enough that I reached out to contact the artist as soon as I gathered the nerve, and we've been working together ever since on musical projects -- Stone Breath, The Spectral Light and Moonshine Firefly Snakeoil Jamboree, Breathe Stone, Crow Tongue and others in between, with many other talented musicians. (I don't count myself among the talented, musically, but they let me sing with them anyway!)


"The Vision of the Face in the Well"

Some of the original artwork used in the booklet for this CD is available for sale at the label Web site, Dark Holler Arts, on this page. The original cover artwork is still available, as are several other pieces -- each comes along with a copy of the LP and some other goodies as well. And, of course, the LP itself is available for $20 and includes a cd-r of all of the tracks -- the link for that purchase is at the very bottom of the page I linked to above.

To see the full catalog of titles available in the music catalog, visit the main page.

"The Shepherdess of the Fiery Wheels"

Illuminated letter from lyrics booklet, letter "I"

To hear music from the new album, or from some of the older releases, please visit the Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/StoneBreath.

There is also a newly launched fan page for the band over at Facebook.

I can't really do justice to my friend's work in a single blog post so I hope to share more of his pen and ink work later this year. Please visit the sites, take a listen and enjoy!

Artist feature: jojosart

Above, "Restless Night" by Joe La Fargue

"RIP 1994" by Joe La Fargue.

Yesterday I featured SingASongofSixpence, who has many lovely original pen and ink drawings in her shop -- I love black and white, pen and ink art, possibly because I don't do a lot of it myself. I need the forgiving amorphousness of paint since I do not have a steady hand! I really admire the way a talented pen and ink artist can imbue their work with color just by the textures, shapes and forms with which they populate their paper.

Jojosart.etsy.com is full of inspired, visionary art with figures that suggest themes like life, death, time, dreams, freedom and madness.  Above are several examples, included here with his permission.  Another piece this week features ghostly forms with clock faces; others include angelic and dream figures, trees, night imagery, butterflies and anthropomorphic flowers.

He describes his inspiration in his profile: "I'm a self taught artist born and raised near some cotton fields in mississippi. I can remember finding an old tattered notebook on the school bus when i was just a little boy. It was full of all this cool fantasy art. It sparked my imagination and lit a fire in me that i still can't quench."

He offers prints of his work and I look forward to seeing many more. Please check out his shop!

Featured artist: SingASongOfSixpence

As promised, here is the first in a series of features I'm doing on artists that I admire -- starting with some pen and ink/black & white art by artists I have found on Etsy.

SingASongOfSixpence.etsy.com has a beautiful selection of drawings and some paintings, with crisp, captivating surreal imagery.  She mixes fairy tales, mythology, and history with a sense for the subtle and silent, and I find her work enchanting.

Objects hover in mid-air or float into space, with snake women, sirens, balloons, and birds among the themes in the artist's personal mythology.  Here is what she says in her Etsy profile about her subject matter:

"Blackbirds, skeleton keys, buttons, and feathers...these are the things I like, and these are the things that weave their way into my art. There's something very old-fashioned about them, and I certainly love everything old-fashioned. Although I'm only 21, I've got an old soul. The aesthetics of the past inspire me...Ancient Roman, Medieval, Georgian, Victorian, and so on and so on. My work represents a harmonious marriage between art and history...my two great passions."

I heartily encourage everyone to keep an eye on this gifted artist and to enter her unique universe.  She is featured on several other places on the web included this gallery in Ottawa.

Although I've selected several black and white images to share here with her permission, her colour paintings are also magnificent, with bright, bold hues, like this spectrum of apples.

Or this painting titled Goblin Market.

Enjoy!  Another feature will be coming tomorrow.