French artist Emmanuel Polanco has been involved in some pretty cool projects. From his clean book cover designs to designing the posters for the Royal Shakespeare Company to illustrating the booklet for the United States Postal Service's Commemorative Edition of the Edgar Allan Poe stamp.His work leans surreal and offers a fresh perspective for these classic works.for the Royal Shakespeare Company 2011/2012 production of Measure for Measurecover of French Edition of John Steinbeck's The Pearlcover for Fictive edition, 2006Illustration for “Thomas More, l'Utopie” Illustration for Howler magazine, first issue. “The play's the Thing. How soccer imitates art.”More at Polanco's website, In Melancholia
Over The Counter Alphabet
Over the Counter ABC's by Ray Geary is a drug-laced trip through the alphabet with each letter being comprised of a select over the counter medication. So here in this 'capsulettered' alphabet is Pills:Geary is also working on a series of bagged words!More Geary at ArtSlant
Portraits of Modern American Poets
Langston Hughes by Winold Reiss, circa 1925. Pastel on illustration board. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.You know if the National Portrait Gallery is going to hold an exhibit featuring the portraits of poets it's going to be a good one."Poetic License: Modern American Poets " pays homage to over 50 poets and includes over 75 works.Walt Whitman. G. Frank E. Pearsall, 1872. Albumen silver print. Courtesy the National Portrait GalleryThe exhibit looks at the partnership of poets and artists in the creation of modern culture.The core seeds of the exhibit are Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound and it all...
The Art of Library Date Stamps
For Italian artist Frederico Pietrella, time is a framework that can be measured in the time it takes to create a work of art. And one of the mediums he uses to illustrate the concept of time is a library date stamp. As his large-scale images take a considerable amount of time to produce, he will change the stamp to reflect the current date, adding texture to illustrate his everyday images in a complex, pointillistic manner. Each image can take him up to two months to complete, and they often sell for up to €20,000 (or $26.000).Pietrella, who now makes...
Yoko Ono Collects Rare Books: The Book Patrol Interview
I had lunch with Yoko Ono during the 2010 New York Antiquarian Book Fair.That’s a sentence I figured I’d have about as much chance of writing as, “I accept the nomination of my party for President of the United States,” but with less probability of actual realization.At the Fair on Saturday, I noticed Yoko Ono quietly walking the aisles. I thought, I must talk to her about rare books. And immediately I thought, Gertz, you do not have the nuts to approach her. And I was right.Forty minutes later I was starving and, anxious to have my wallet gutted, walked...