I enjoy the effort that the NYC subway system has made to incorporate art work into the experience of riding the rails.
It is not quite the '80's heydey of unofficial art when Keith Haring was drawing his little outline figures everywhere, and graffiti artists were bombing the trains.
Now it is a bit more sanctioned and tasteful.
But fun nonetheless.
These figures on their way somewhere are only a few inches tall, like they escaped from "The Secret World of Arietty"!
Enjoy!
william
Original paintings made for the covers of pulp magazines from the 1930's were treated as disposable commercial art-for-hire in their time, and therefore are quite rare today.
One of the masters of the medium was Norman Saunders, so it was quite a treat to stumble upon a small exhibit of the original vintage paintings of some of his now famous work at an out-of-the-way gallery run by Syracuse University on a recent trip to New York.
One of Saunders many employers was Hugo Gernsback, the editor of Amazing Stories, Wonder Stories, Science-Wonder Stories and many of the other seminal pulp fiction publications that introduced writers like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells to the world. In fact, he is often known as the Father of Science Fiction, and the annual award for the best in science fiction writing, The Hugo, is named after him. I had never seen a picture of him at work, but they had a cool one in the exhibit.
Although not painted by Saunders, I liked this poster from one of the most successful pulp characters, spawning radio shows, comics, movies, and books for generations:
Norman Saunders knew what evil lurked in the hearts of men, and women, and he painted them luridly, and beautifully.
Enjoy!
william
Here are two rare covers by the genius comics artist Alex Raymond from an Italian large format comic from 1965 that I uncovered recently at one of those increasingly rare "yesteryears" comic book and nostalgia type shops during my stint in NYC.
As can be said about many things in life: "for those of you who know, no further explanation is necessary, for those who don't, know explanation will suffice."
But for the curious you can read more about Raymond's life and work here.
Like many 20th century artistic icons, he died too young, in a car accident at 47. Hs work as the creator of Flash Gordon was part of the dreamscape of generations of Americans, but it was fun to suddenly imagine a little raggazi on the streets of Milan or Roma cracking open this book in the mid-sixties too.
Enjoy!
william
Here's a belated post that I wanted to share with you last Monday for President's Day.
Better late than never, especially when it comes to Alfred E. Newman.
Hey - is that next year's Oscar nominee Daniel Day Lewis peeking out from behind the fence?
Enjoy!
william
The great philosopher Ecclesiastes said:
"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
The great race track philosopher Damon Runyon said:
"The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet."
Happy birthday, Miro!
Enjoy!
Dad
Sad but not surprising that the New York Times obituary of actor Peter Breck fails to mention his work in his greatest film - the journalist-undercover-in-a-mental-institution classic "Shock Corridor" by B-movie master Sam Fuller.
If you haven't seen it, check it out, for Breck, and for the wildly imaginative storytelling, shocking visuals and droll humor that were Fuller's trademarks.
Enjoy!
william
Scouting locations for a film is usually a bit of a magical mystery tour.
Venturing into unknown territory and discovering hidden facets of our world. I think that was the inspiration for this fantasy painting/photograph I made of one of the island parks we discovered on our visit to Prague.
But more than places, the fascinating and diverse people you get to meet along the way are always the things that stay with you.
Film professionals are film professionals the world over, with a common language and inate predisposition to solve problems. Two of the best in the business in their countries are:
Ildiko Kemeny of Pioneer FIlms in Budapest
Andjelka Vlaisavljevic of Work In Progress in Belgrade
It was great spending time with them in their native lands and learning their histories in the business and educating ourselves about local films and filmmaking traditions.
Got to go - the magical mystery tour is waiting to take me away!
Enjoy!
william
