Interim

I vowed that the next post on this blog would be the memorial for our westie, Pupkin. Writing about him proved to be painful, and still is now even after a whole year (hence the procrastination). It is like having to say goodbye all over again, but with the anniversary date of his passing quickly approaching I need to do it.

The last blog I wrote was about the loss of what we called the Bradbury Tree across the street from us. Little did we know that not long after we would be losing our Pupkin, who was named after Joe Pipkin from Ray Bradbury's, The Halloween Tree. Bitter irony.

Rather than have two memorials back to back I thought I'd post this tidbit about something that really cheered up Becky and me when we saw it.

Earlier this year Cody Goodfellow posted a progress report on the Perilous Press Blog and included a photo he took of Patton Oswalt holding a copy of Michael Shea's Copping Squid. Cody told me that Patton is a huge fan of Michael's work. We were stoked to see such a great comedian and actor (who is one of our all time favorites!) holding up a book sporting a cover done by me. Thanks Cody for letting me re-post the photo!


© 2011 Cody Goodfellow

Happy Autumn? Not so fast.

We woke up this morning to the wail of chainsaws. Across the street from our home, city workers were taking down a majestic old maple tree that must have been at least 80 years old.

The reason the workers gave Becky when she inquired was, "we were told to take it down 'cause its damaging the sidewalk".


Even in the strongest winds and fiercest ice storms the old girl never lost more than a branch or two. But what Mother Nature in her capricious moods nibbled in healable morsels, man in his hunger for imagined order devoured in whole.

We enjoyed watching that beautiful tree revolve through the seasons since we moved here in July of 1994. It, along with the old historic homes it complimented, was one of the reasons we referred to our little area as a "Ray Bradbury Street". Water Street could perhaps have been some unmentioned side avenue in "The Halloween Tree" or a quiet lane from "Dandelion Wine".

We'll miss the starkness of its bare branches against the winter sky, the soft pale green of its new leaves in spring, the sound of the summer winds moving through its dense foliage, and the fiery orange of its autumn cloak.

No more will its leaves skitter madly through the streets on a windy November day, no more will squadrons of dragonflies hunt above its canopy on a bright August afternoon.

The streetlight will now only have the sterile ground below for its mercury incandescence to illuminate, the leaves and branches that caught and softened the upward shine of its harsh glare hauled off and dumped without ceremony in some overburdened landfill.


Some might rejoice in the passing of "a messy tree whose leaves clogged the gutters and littered the neighborhood lawns". But there are a few of us who mourn the loss of what could be equated as an old and trusted friend. Today the City of Charlestown may have become closer to model efficiency, but we feel that it has become exponentially colder in heart.

Yes, I'm being melodramatic, but I felt the occasion called for a bit of literary decorum.

And as summer comes to a close...

I'm busy, busy, busy. I meant to have this blog entry posted by the beginning of September, but better late than never. I can't complain though. It is so nice having a full work schedule.

It was a definitely a"Butterfly" summer. Simon Clark's novella "Butterfly" sold out in a heartbeat. Simon was kind enough to include some of the images I created for his Signature Series book in this wonderful promotional video. The music and photographs are by Alex Clark.


I was once again accorded the honor of working on a Gene O'Neill novel. Coming soon from Bad Moon Books is Gene's novel "DEATHFLASH" Here are the cover and interiors.


Our final convention of the year was Context 23 . What a blast! Everyone from fellow guests to Context staff were just wonderful. I sold a lot of prints and the original illustration for my latest Chaosium assignment. And the frosting on the cake was that I scored some jobs. I love writer's conventions.


One of the jobs resulted from my highly successful art demo. More about that in a future blog.

On Saturday night during the Shroud Publishing party the Hiram Awards were bestowed. Lo and behold I was given the award for "Unique Juxtaposition in Illustration". Written on the back of the award certificate is " For demonstrating innumerable uses of cogs and fossils in horror art". Uh-oh, this is just going to provoke me to keep painting my mechanized nightmares.


And just in time for the Halloween season is my cover illustration for J. G. Faherty's forthcoming novel " Carnival of Fear" which will be published by by Graveside Books (GravesideBooks.com). It was great fun making J. G.'s vision for his cover a reality, but how can you go wrong with ghouls and ferris wheels.

Butterfly

Yay! I just saw this at Cemetery Dance Publications. The limited edition of Simon Clark's Butterfly is now listed as In-Stock.

A Facebook test.

I just want to see if Facebook will import this new entry.

NEEDS MORE COWBELL!

I thought I'd better jot down this blog while it is reasonably fresh in my mind. Camp Necon was last weekend. We had a great time as always. The title of my blog is in reference to Cortney Skinner's spot-on impersonation of Christopher Walken during this years talent show.

Cortney Skinner

This was the 30th anniversary and the campus was rocking. There were two mystery guests this time around. I think everyone had an interesting time trying to guess who they might be (it would be fun if this turned into a yearly event). As it turned out the mystery guests were none other than literary greats Brian Keene and Joe Hill. Of course it must be noted that all the writers at Necon are either current or future literary greats.

I have not read Joe's work yet, but I now have an autographed copy of Heart Shaped Box to start with.

Brian Keene, Mary SanGiovanni, and Joe Hill

Poetry extraordinaire Linda Addison was in attendance. I have to give her a nod for introducing us to St. Germain Elderflower liqueur. We brought a bottle of this potent nectar and had great fun in sharing it. We plan on bringing a bottle with us next year in addition to some other interesting spirits. It is after all a horror writers convention.

Jill Bauman, Linda Addison, and Becky.

During a round table discussion at the gazebo in the quad Rick Hautala posed the question to everyone "Who would you drive 500 miles to meet?". The answers included such greats as Ray Bradbury, Rachel Maddow, Angela Lansbury (Becky's answer) and guitarist Steve Howe.


I was preoccupied taking pics with the old Sony so I did not give an answer that night, but here it is now. Necon as a whole is my response to the question. Since 2005 I've been driving over 500 miles to meet some of the greatest folks in the world. I'm constantly learning new things at Necon, I continuously meet new and fascinating people at Necon, and getting to the nitty gritty of things, I get paying jobs at Necon. And while I'm projecting (hopefully) the appearance of a professional artist, inside I'm the biggest geek fan of all these extraordinary people. I know this might sound sappy, but it is true.

Now to a bit of Necon news I've been sitting on for a year. I now have something in common with such artistic greats as Omar Rayyan, Cortney Skinner, Alan Clark, Jill Bauman, Mike Mignola, and Richard Sardinha to name a few. In 2011 I will be the Artist Guest of Honor for Necon 31. All I can say is wow. Well, that is all I can say at the moment. But really, WOW!


A special thanks to Dallas Mayr for pointing out the sweet spot for this wonderful shot. Click on the picture to get the full sized image.

"Mechanizing the Chimera" and other news fit to print.

My show "Mechanizing the Chimera" is currently up at The Tim Faulkner Gallery. Consisiting of twelve new 16" x 20" paintings on canvas, this show explores some of my older illustrating ideas (some dating back to high school) and revisiting them with the current concepts and techniques I've been working with.

The show is up through the month of June, and if you find yourself in Louisville tonight please drop by the gallery for my "private" reception.

I'm woefully behind in my blogging duties (as usual) and up to my ears in assignments, so I'll quickly wrap this blog up with a role call of books currently available that feature my art on the covers.


To Each Their Darkness by Gary A. Braunbeck is currently available from Apex Book Company.


Jade by Gene O'Neill, published by Bad Moon Books, is available at Horror Mall


The Yith Cycle, edited by Bob Price is available from Chaosium Inc.


Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss is available from Cemetery Dance Publications.


And sporting a cover created by Alan M. Clark and myself is Lost in Cat Brain Land by Cameron Pierce, published by Eraserhead Press and available through Amazon.com

The Bram Stoker Awards

The Bram Stoker Awards ceremony was held this past weekend at the World Horror Convention in Brighton, England. I'm pleased to report that Gene O'Neill won the Award for Superior Achievement in a Collection for Taste of Tenderloin which I did the cover for. Congratulations to Gene and publisher Jason Sizemore!

Also congratulations to Norman Prentiss for winning the Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction and Michael Knost for winning the Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction.

The complete list of winners can be seen at the Horror Writers Association's blog Dark Whispers.

I have had the pleasure of working on a number of Gene's projects. I owe an eternal debt of gratitude to William Jones for choosing me to illustrate Gene's story "Invasors de Suenos" for Dark Wisdom back in 2005. This brought my work to Gene's attention. Most recently I illustrated his chapbook Jade, published by Bad Moon Books (available for pre-order at Horror Mall).

Congratulations again Gene, and I look forward to our future collaborations.

The year started out on a sad note for us. We lost our cat Will-o-wisp. She would have been 18 this coming June. She died of feline kidney failure, which, if I'm correct in understanding, is fairly common in older cats. She had a pretty good life aside from having to deal with our younger cats, and being nearly 18 is admittedly a good milestone for a feline. Nonetheless, I wish we could have had more time with her. I miss her rattling the door knobs on my studio doors and sitting behind me in my chair while I painted.

In news of my trade, my first assignment for the year was an Elder Signs Press project. I was very pleased with how the painting turned out. I'll post that as soon as I'm given the go-ahead. Likewise with an interior illustration for Allen K's magazine INHUMAN.

Gene O'Neill's anthology Taste of Tenderloin (published by Apex Digest) has been nominated for a Bram Stoker Award (the complete list is available here) . Congratulations Gene! This is the first time that a publication with one of my covers has been on the nomination list.


A limited edition chapbook Dark Faith: Last Rights is available from Apex Book Company. And of course I'm mentioning it here because the cover is by me. This is part of a promotion for the anthology Dark Faith, edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon. Ordering info is available at at this address.


And back to Gene O'Neill. I had the pleasure of illustrating his new chapbook "Jade" which will soon be available from Bad Moon Books. Here is the cover and interior illustrations.

"Inside The Jack-In-The-Box"

This friday (December 4th) is the opening for the December show "Inside The Jack-In-The-Box" at the Tim Faulkner Gallery. Some of my paintings will be among the fantastic work on display and for sale.

Here is the official announcement:

"Tim Faulkner Gallery will be marking it's 2nd anniversary with "Inside The Jack-In-The-Box", a Xmas group show. To celebrate this holiday season, I have gotten together with some of the city's top artists and they've produced smaller works that will be very affordable and make great Xmas presents. This will be an opportunity to own works by artists such as Steven Gilberts, Quincy Owens, Terry Tapp, Barbara Crawford, Margaret Spivey, and Jeremy Dixon at a more than reasonable cost. Please plan on attending and supporting the local arts. This should prove to be our biggest show of the year, so needless to say you don't want to miss it!"


Date: Friday, December 4, 2009
Time: 5:00pm - 11:00pm
Location: Tim Faulkner Gallery

The show will be up through December, so even if you cannot make it for the opening I hope you will be able to drop in sometime this month.

And don't forget, the gallery has moved. The new address is:

632 E. Market St. Ste. 1
Louisville, KY 40202

and the phone number is (502) 381-1314.

Ghosts and Toasts

We had a blast this past weekend.

Saturday night we hung out with the great folks of "The Old Dark Clubhouse" gang at the Wonderfest reunion. As the level of a $100 bottle of special Woodford Reserve steadily decreased the conversation ran from episodes of SCTV to old movies (I've got to see Stairway to Heaven) to tales of the fortean. At everyone's urging Troy Guinn broke out his guitar and regaled us with music from his old band The Secret Commonwealth. Later in the evening he sang a tribute song to the late, great, Jack Hunter Daves that he and Linda Wylie co-wrote which was followed by a toast in memory of Jack. There was not a dry eye in the house. Thanks again Dave and Randy for inviting us.

Sunday found us at the monthly Sunday Salon at The Tim Faulkner Gallery. The current show is Shoe Gazer Dream Pop, a showing of recent work by phenomenal artist Jen Goodell. It was good crowd. I brought some work for the upcoming December show and had my ego boosted with wonderful plaudits. And thank you again Margaret for giving me the moniker "Mystic Steve".

Among the scary subjects discussed Saturday night were ghosts, and among the scary subjects discussed Sunday was health insurance. The insurance conversation was by far the scariest of the weekend.

In other news, Perilous Press is running the NOVEMBER COPPING SQUID SWEEPSTAKES! .

Here is the info from the Perilous Press site: "STEVEN GILBERTS showered a treasure trove of darksome COPPING SQUID art upon us, and we're passing it on to you. Everyone who purchases an exclusive limited edition COPPING SQUID by MICHAEL SHEA from our site between now and Thanksgiving Day, 2009 will be entered to win a full-color, signed, limited (#1 of 500) print of eye-popping Copping Squid art by the phenomenal Steve Gilberts. The lucky winner will be notified by e-mail, and receive their print early enough to decide not to give it away for Xmas.

If you've already pre-ordered a copy, you're already entered to win. If you haven't, ORDER NOW! The limited edition of COPPING SQUID has been delayed by printing complications, but to make up for it and cover everyone who didn't win a print, we're throwing in an 11X17 poster print of OCEAN'S DAUGHTER, a Gilberts masterpiece painted for the trade edition cover, with every order.

And CONGRATULATIONS to ZAK JARVIS, the winner of our first Steve Gilberts drawing, at the World Fantasy Convention."*

Well, back to the easel. I'm still getting acclimated to my new studio, but it is great having everything in one place. Now if I can just solve the mysteries of Photoshop CS4 my life will be complete.

-Insert Witty Title Here-

Good gosh what a hectic October. Among our recent misadventures was the aforementioned repair of our rain damaged bedroom ceiling. They had to pull down all the plaster from the ceiling and replace it with drywall. Fortunately all of the wood was intact (and the bare lathe strips looked pretty neat). Mark Robinson of Robinson LTD did an excellent job of renovation.



This past Saturday Becky and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. The weather was bright and sunny just like the day we were married. The afternoon was spent getting our bedroom back in order, but we made up for it that evening by going to one of our favorite restaurants, Jeeves and Company, for a superb gourmet dinner. As we dined we watched the setting sun illuminate the fall foliage of the court house trees across the street to fiery reds and oranges. Couldn't ask for a better day.

In other news I've restored two online galleries lost in the January server crash and also added a new one.

You can find my cover art and interiors for David Lee Summers' "Vampires of the Scarlet Order" here.

My gallery for the cover art and interiors for Simon Clark's "Butterfly" is at this address.

And this is the home for the new gallery of my cover and interior art for Michael Shea's anthology "Copping Squid and other Mythos Tales".

Goodbye September, Hello October.

Sorry for ducking under the radar as of late. September has consisted of home owner dilemmas, starting with the bottom of the house (some plumbing issues) and finishing with the top of the house (multiple leaks in a two year old roof). The roofing issue created damage to our bedroom ceiling, so that will be our October adventure.

Fortunately the roof is under warranty and has now been (hopefully) repaired, insurance (sans the deductible) will cover our bedroom ceiling repairs, and in looking over our homeowners policy we discovered some gaps in coverage that have now been corrected. Whew!

So on to other news. This weekend Cody Goodfellow, Michael Shea, and S. T. Joshi will be attending the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon to promote Copping Squid. A great start for October (and much more fun than home repairs).


Cover art for the limited edition of Copping Squid.

Off and running for September

Becky and I attended Context this past weekend and had a blast! The main reason I attended was for the release party of Gene O'Neill's Taste of the Tenderloin from Apex Book Company, but I also participated in the big Shroud Publications-Meadow Hawk Press extravaganza.

Meeting Gene O'Neill and his son Gavin in person was the highlight of the convention. We also had the pleasure of meeting such wonderful folks as Gord Rollo, Gary Braunbeck, Michael Knost, D. Harlen Wilson, Sheldon Higdon, and Danny Evarts, along with reuniting with the Broaddus family, the Larsons, Tim Deal, the Gambor family, Michael West, Chris Golden, Brian Hatcher, and Grace Welch (of course this is an incomplete list).

I'm not attending Dragoncon, but some of my artwork will be there via World of Strange. They will be in the Artist's Alley at Bob Burden's booth. Of course they will also be featuring the work of such greats as Billy Tackett, Donato Giancola, and William Stout to name a few. Please drop by and purchase some shirts.

That is all I have time to write for now. I have to take our Honda in for a driver's side airbag recall, attempt to replace the wax ring on our toilet, and finish three paintings. What doesn't kill me will make me stronger (and perhaps a little smelly).

I'm Awake!

The roofers that have been working on the house of our neighbor up on the corner got an early start this morning, so as consequence I got an early start also.

A reminder to all, I'll be a guest at Context this coming weekend. The Apex Book Company's release party for Gene O'Neill's "Taste of Tenderloin" will be at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Work is progressing on the Michael Shea project. The Perilous Press site has been updated, and this link will take you directly to the page for "Copping Squid and Other Mythos Tales"


Wee, my work is on the cover of a Robert Bloch anthology! Chaosium.com now has the reissue of Robert Bloch's "The Mysteries of the Worm available. Ordering information is available here.


And now I'm off for a ride on the exercise bike before locking myself into the studio.

August Mayhem.

I'm hopefully moving towards the end of a nasty summer flu bug. It has made for some sleepless nights, but on a positive note being awake at 1:00 a.m. means I've been able to catch up on my Venture Brothers episodes.

In other news, first up is my latest cover. Here is my painting for "Copping Squid and Other Mythos Tales" an anthology of World Fantasy Award Winner Michael Shea's mythos stories.

This will be available from Perilous Press this October. Cody Goodfellow presented me with the intriguing concept and I took it from there. I'm in the process of finishing up the interior art for the project.


My art is now wearable! At this years Hypericon I had the great fortune to meet Ben and Tracy Eller. Ben and Tracy run World of Strange Fantastic Apparel and asked me if they could offer my work on their attire. Of course I said yes. Click here to see my page on their site, and by all means buy something. Also available thru their site is apparel sporting the fantastic art of such artistic luminaries as Michael Whelan, Donato Giancola, Billy Tackett, William Stout, and Cyril van der Haegen. Suffice it to say I'm stoked about being listed along with these folks.

I've updated my shopping site finally. Thank you very much Deborah Jones for creating the tutorial for me. Please drop by to see what I've added (and of course to buy something). For some reason the site takes a few moments to load, so my apologies on the wait.

Last but not least, I'll be attending Context 22 in Columbus Ohio for the release party of Gene O'Neill's "Taste of Tenderloin", published by Apex Book Company. I'll also be doing some book signing for Shroud Publishing. I hope to see you there.