One of the good things in life

3 year olds tell odd jokes

Barnabas Google, Thespian

For my most recent book, I unearthed images documenting Barney Google's early career as a Shakespearean actor, before he had his big break in the comic strips.

Here's Barney Google as he is more widely known:



And here are a couple of images from the book:





You can see the entire book online, along with a growing archive of older FIMP books.

"Fleeting Pages" and FIMP on Flickr

I am participating in "Fleeting Pages", a great project taking place next month in Pittsburgh. Fleeting Pages describes itself as "taking over (taking back?) a space, left empty by a failed big box bookstore, for one month, starting MAY 7th, and filling it with independent & self-published work of all kinds, book arts, workshops, and events. All revolving around written self-expression."

The location is the former Borders bookstore in East Liberty. There are currently more than 100 small press publishers, writers, and artists who will be participating, with more coming in all the time.

You can learn more about the project at their website:

Fleeting Pages

And if you are (or know) an artist making books, or a writer writing books, or a publisher publishing books, there's still time to submit work to this event.

I've also been busily uploading FIMP's archive of tiny books to Flickr - you can see all of the artwork from 25 of the tiny books at:

FIMP's books on Flickr

Eventually I'll have the majority of the 106 (and counting) books available online, so you can browse the complete results of a misspent decade at the Fiji Island Mermaid Press.

The Day Before His Great Fall

These are the color collages for "The Day Before His Great Fall", FIMP book #11 from 2001. I'm slowly putting the FIMP archive up on Flickr - you can see (at this point) 24 of the books here.

I made this dopey little book 10 years ago. . .

So I'm heading into year number 12 of making these little eight page books. I try to make one each month, and I mail them out to subscribers to the FIMP book of the month club.

I'm slowly posting the artwork from these books on Flickr, figuring that if I'm going to spend more than a decade doing something I might as well get it out there. Here are the
first 19 (out of 105) FIMP books that I've uploaded so far.

Here is this month's book, How To Be A Stand-Up Comic In Three Easy Steps.



I tried to model it as closely as possible on a book I made in 2001, How To Be A Magician In Three Easy Steps.



I used to do a lot more collage of the cut it out and glue it down sort back then. These days much more of it happens in the computer. My dopey sense of humor hasn't changed much in ten years, though. My standards for how the books have to look have gotten higher. Or at least, a bit more labor intensive - doesn't necessarily make for a "better" book. I guess you could be the judge of that. Sometimes I like the polish, sometimes I like the ragged edges. . .

Amazing work by JR

Zinery!

If you happen to be in St. Louis tonight for the Southern Graphics Council Conference, I'll have a few of my books available at Zinery, a mini exhibition and build-your-own-zine buffet by Winners Press!

Animal Walks Alone

"Animal Walks Alone"

OK I'll blow bubbles
OK I'll blow some clouds
OK I'll blow some super bubbles
OK I'll walk alone
OK I'll hang from a tree
OK I'll jump up and down
OK I'll wear a broken hat
OK I'll take a sun bath

(text from 5 year old Rachel's book "Animal Walks Alone")

How To Be A Better Person

Neither Baffled Nor Amazed

This little book is contrary to the FIMP tradition of presenting "How To" books that really teach you nothing useful about the subject at hand. In this case, you have a magic trick that you can actually perform for anyone under 10 or so and actually fool them! Patter included!

What I enjoy about "Neither Baffled Nor Amazed" is the attempt to actually perform a magic trick in a little book. A huge success, in that I successfully perform the trick and make the coin disappear. On the other hand, of course, it fails, in that the slow step-by-step illustration of the trick allows you to clearly see where I palmed the coin and placed it in my shirt collar (you did catch that, didn't you? Don't try this trick wearing a t-shirt).

But, of course, I didn't palm the coin. It's a bunch of drawings. I just didn't draw the coin, and so it "disappeared".

But, the drawings are of an event that could actually take place, in which if you did drop the coin on the table, you could easily palm it and tuck it into your shirt collar.

There's a part of our brain that wants to follow along with the sequential images and "believe" that what we see there is actually "happening". It's fun to play with that part of our brain.

So, it's a failure as a trick, but perhaps it succeeds in tricking you into thinking that some sort of event took place that resembled a magic trick.

It's February's Book of the Month!

Subscribers to the Book of the Month Club should start watching their mailboxes for "What Birds Want".

If, instead of reading, handling, enjoying, and passing around amongst your friends a satisfyingly handmade object signed by the artist, you would rather just see all of the images from the book online, you can find them right here on Flickr.

The Revolution, revisited

"The Revolution" was a book-of-the-month back in 2007, but I thought I would bring it back in light of the recent awe-inspiring events in Egypt. There has been a lot of attention paid to the important role social media has played in recent events (with some dissenting views as well), so I thought I would bring back my ill-considered exploration of the subject. This book, of course, has nothing to do with the incredibly brave people who actually take to the streets and overthrow dictators - it's more about some of us who watch.

I guess I was unaware of Facebook and Twitter at the time - and look, it's the original judges from American Idol! Proof once again that a FIMP book is a poor place to find meaningful or useful information about the world around you.

Paperwhite Narcissus

Along with the seedlings we've got some bulbs blooming. The Paperwhite Narcissus are very pretty and kinda smelly.

Ceaseless Seedling Drama

Remember that sunflower seedling from a couple of days ago? Its second pair of leaves have opened up. I bet you were on pins and needles, weren't you? A second seedling is having trouble shedding its shell. Will I help it? No. It builds character for seedlings to solve problems like this on their own.

Sharks

My daughter has a tiny rubber shark with delusions of grandeur.

Dreaming of Spring

Linocuts, drawings, and collages on Flickr

I'm putting together some image sets on Flickr, and found a small group of digital collages that I'd made in advance of one of my tiny books. Amazing what's hiding on the hard drive! You might want to check out the growing gallery. . .

This morning's dinosaur sketch was declared "OK" by my daughter

A crumb from my sketchbook - the T-Rex Hat

Click!

Do You Recall?

Here's the latest book from the FIMP Book of the Month Club." So you thought Rudolph was the only mutant reindeer that isolated herd at the North Pole produced? Think again!

The first sketchbook item from 2011

The last drawing from 2010

Deck the Halls - an exhibition at 28 West Second Gallery in Greensburg, PA

28 West Second Gallery & Studio Space presents Deck the Halls: A Second Annual Holiday Exhibition, with an opening reception on Saturday, December 11, 2010 from 7 - 10 PM. Exhibition continues through December 24, 2010.

Deck the Halls features art work from local artists throughout the western Pennsylvania region: Michael Bendik, Michelle Eng-Bendik, Robert Bishop, Tony Cacalano, Kyle Fischer, John Lario, Roberta Meyers, Amy Rustic, Scott Snaden, Marc Snyder, Meeghan Triggs and more. There will be a wide variety of art work ranging from collage, fiber arts, painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography. Find a unique gift for those special people in your life!



I'm delighted to have 7 linocuts included in this exhibition, including this one, "Lunch Hour".

28 West Second is a really great gallery here in Greensburg, and I would encourage everyone who can to take this opportunity to visit it!


28 West Second
Gallery & Studio Space
28 West Second St
Greensburg, PA 15601
Website: www.28westsecond.com

Gallery Hours: Tues - Fri Noon - 6 PM/ Sat 11 AM - 4 PM / Appointments Welcome / Admission is Free