Aw, I'm sorry blog. I didn't mean to make you upset. Here, let's change the subject. We can find something fun to talk about, like the current invasion, or some such. Or Dead Space. We can talk about Dead Space. No wait, let's not talk about Dead Space. Let's talk about something else. Let's talk about artists. Let's talk about comic book artists. Actually no, let's just talk about a few contemporaries that are cluttering my headspace with curiousities. I'm feeling scattered. Lists help sometimes.
1. Dave McKean
Suffice to say that I know nothing of these artists other than that I love them. McKean works often in collaboration with Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite authors ever. His style is surreal, unsettling and haunting. I feel like that may be an ongoing theme, but I'm not thinking very clearly these days, so how about we journey through this together and see where it takes us?
He is an ideal artist for urban fantasy. He can take the mundane, the predictable, and morph it right before your eyes into something both horrifying and compelling all at once. His art embodies the sense that all fantasy has that potential for fear. The unknown and misunderstood can be just as terrifying as it can be wondrous.
This is a couple of screens from Neil Gaiman's movie Mirrormask, the art direction clearly being headed by McKean (although let me note that I have no idea what his official role was). Can you get the sense of surreality? How tangible is that? Is it frightening?
He does photography, sculpture, painting... and he's goddamned good at every single one. His style resonates with me, his subjects compel me. Somehow I feel understood, without ever meeting him, without ever knowing him in a capacity to have anything dedicated to me. That's a gift, that's art.
I want everything done by him, ever.
2. James Jean
I know him as the guy who did the Fables covers forever; if I remember correctly he's going up to 80, but the issues are only up to 78 right now so we'll see. He recently resigned so that he can pursue his own paintings, which will be no less fantastic (although I'm going to miss him dearly as the Fables cover artist).
I think his style suits Fables so perfectly. His aesthetic is instantly appealing regardless of the subject. The colors, the style, the mood...everything is always impeccable. I get such a sense of yearning and wonder from all of his works. And nostalgia.
There's always something going on behind the paint, and it's palpable. The emotion he evokes is always somehow the same that he wants to convey, I think. It's so complex for me, and so moving. Again, the word "haunting" comes to mind. And while we're at it:
Don't lie, you love it.
3. Justin Cherry (a.k.a. Nivbed)
Nivbed leaves me breathless. I am so chilled by his art. I wish so desperately that he would update more. It feels like years.
Part of his Lonely King series. Again, his style is almost ephemeral, like the strange images you see in a dream. Yes, there's definitely a theme going on here. There's something so dark and threatening about his work, and yet it's so undeniably beautiful for me.
I'm so drawn to his subject matter. I think what I love so much about it (or one of the many reasons) is that the first thought is of the macabre, and yet if anything I think that his art is about rebirth. It's about redefining his subjects. He reawakens the images of your nightmares and twists them into something beautiful.
It's powerful and grand. It's frightening and exciting. And it incites within me such longing. For what, I don't know, but I can feel it tugging at my heart, like I have to find a way into the world he creates, like I have to be a part of it. McKean, Jean and Cherry all of that in common. They paint my dreams.
4. Ben Templesmith
Templesmith's style literally radiates awesome. It practically produces it's own heat. His style is gritty, gruesome, and also (yeah, here it comes) haunting. His work calls for action. It makes you want to get up and fight or fuck or at the very least keep reading his goddamn comic!
I know him from 30 Days of Night, Dead Space, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, Fell, Welcome to Hoxford, and he also does the covers for Wasteland. Gory, frightening, and impossible to ignore. Those are his subjects and that's his style to a T. They are all the stuff of nightmares.
There's also a softness to it, sometimes. Like looking at something through gauze or the haze of memory. It can be somehow familiar, which is even more chilling than seeing it as totally foreign and surreal. The quiet moments are what catch me off guard, and I love his art's demand for both action and reflection.
And his stories are really, really fricking awesome.
5. Mike Mignola
Mignola's style differs pretty greatly from the past four artists I've talked about, but his subject matter (I either need to expand my vocabulary or go to sleep, huh) is also extremely appealing to me. He likes to take old folklore and rework it within the framework of his amazing comic Hellboy. Please don't let the movies fool you, the comic is fucking amazing. Absolutely brilliant.
God it's impossible to find any of his really good stuff online. Which is why you have to go find the comics. His art is stark and stylized, and it's so perfect for telling these epic tales. Mignola clearly does what he wants, when he wants, and loves it wholeheartedly.
While his style is not as ethereal as the other artists, it still captures that sense of unbelieving, the surreal and impossible. It's distinct and disturbing. He utilizes negative space so well, in perfect contrast to the complexity of his drawings. Each facet in itself is not terribly complicated, but when you put the whole picture together...
I'm annoyed that I can't find any of his really amazing things, but I think it could be because they really need to be in conjunction with his stories. His stories are epic fantasias through history and lore, and are also frankly just kickass. I would love to sit down and just geek with him for hours about mythology... and I love his art so much! It's dirty and yet stark, it's distinct and yet chimerical. It's rife with juxtaposition, symbolism and mystery, and it fits so perfectly, perfectly well.
All of these artists manage to capture dreamstuff and commit it to convas (or paper, or clay, or print...). They essentially make these things real for me. And I need them to be real. I need my dreams, I need the wonder, I need the fantasy. Our world is so beautiful; how can we forget the imagination that goes into creating it?
Okay blog, I think this is sufficient. I'm going to bed now.
