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.