A beautifully designed and written book is a wondrous thing to behold and hold. Click on the image to see a larger one of this double spread of imprint page and title page for the upcoming Lund Humphries / Gray Mare collection of essays, Clive Hicks-Jenkins, already discussed here.(Except: I confess that mine is not an essay but a wild melange of fictive pieces, tiny stories, essay-like snippets, faux holy-book passage with lots of parallelism, etc. I fear that I no longer behave. )
This image was pilfered from Clive's artlog by some ranging, roaming web-gremlin. Somehow seeing it made me realize why he uses that particular style of shoes for his angels--see the little black wing-vents on the shoes: winged like the heels of Mercury. I don't know why that had never occurred to me before. Just dense, I suppose!
Book edited meticulously by Peter Wakelin.
Scrumptious design by Andrew Wakelin.
Scrumptious design by Andrew Wakelin. 
wow! very cool. I think your new blogging series is really informative.
ReplyDeleteI think the group of posts on writing (with six writers contributing here and there) will start Wednesday. In general, I'm trying to post more, though I'm still drowning (not waving) and struggling to catch up. Oh. Well.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful. What is that guy in the first picture doing? He seems as though he has an itch in a particularly difficult spot.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the angel's shoes Marly. Though when you and I finally meet in May, you'll see that I nearly always wear the same shoes, and they are the self-same shoes worn by Gabriel. I have many pairs. Fortunately the makers continue to produce them, which is a relief because I love them. Of course when painting at the easel I paint what is nearest to hand, which are my own feet and hands. And shoes!
ReplyDeleteRobbi,
ReplyDeletePerhaps all angels have an itch in a difficult spot, metaphysically speaking!
You may go and see for yourself at http://www.hicks-jenkins.com and the linked artlog (where it will tell you something about his use of maquettes to pose characters and much more.)
Clive,
ReplyDeleteWe have had a few pairs of those over the years, whatever they are called. (Angel Soft, maybe? No, sounds more like tissue...)
I suppose you just have a natural angel instinct and gravitate (or un-gravitate) toward wingy footwear.
That must be the dancer in my soul, forever seeking to defy gravity!
ReplyDeleteMmm, a former daring young dancer would have angelic aspirations. Anti-gravitate, you are!
ReplyDeleteMercury is the master of all artists, and dancers, and thieves, and all the coolest boys.
ReplyDeleteHey, Kathe!
ReplyDeleteSo fun to e-meet your husband last week... And yes, Mercury definitely hangs over my head. But what it doesn't hang over is the big-house publisher's head! They are a bit anti-Mercury.
"A bit anti-Mercury," oh, not the best god to cross ... Rick was glad to meet you, too - he digs your poetry.
ReplyDeleteYes, don't you think the big publishers tend to like things less mercurial, more the same?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed his photographs so much too! He told me that "The Starry Fool" fit with his firefly...
Funny how I just bumbled onto his site somehow, and then we have so many connections.
No such thing as coincidences, it seems to me.
ReplyDelete