Wednesday, September 1, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 362

Title: He is both ponderous and profound.

7.75 inches by 10.75 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
August 31, 2010

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8 comments:

  1. Kathryn CollinsSeptember 1, 2010 at 2:28 PM

    Just discovered your blog. Really love it. I just re read Moby Dick this summer - the edition with the Rockwell Kent illustrations (woodcuts?) and they added so much to my already boundless enjoyment of the book. Your project and drawings are wonderful. I think art is illumination and wonder and this fits. I hope you continue to continue.

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  2. pastoraliceSeptember 1, 2010 at 4:24 PM

    This is my favorite one yet. Simple and clean yet ponderous as Moby Dick himself. Beautiful.

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  3. Matt KishSeptember 2, 2010 at 9:59 AM

    Ha, thanks Hannah! It's weird, I had this great idea for this image and I thought it would turn out fantastic. And then I finished the piece and for some reason was really disenchanted with it. I think that's probably because it didn't quite look like how I had initially imagined it. The linework in my head was much more delicate. But after a day of not looking at it, I looked at it again and liked it a ton more. Ultimately, it really is quite impressive. "Ponderous and profound" indeed.

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  4. Matt KishSeptember 2, 2010 at 10:06 AM

    Hello Kathryn and welcome to the blog, I am very happy you are visiting and even more so that you enjoy the art. The Rockwell Kent illustrations (I believe they are actually pen and ink, or brush and ink, even though they do very much resemble woodcuts or linocuts) are really magnificent pieces and constant sources of inspiration to me. This illustration of mine for page 155 (here) is actually a direct homage to one of Kent's pieces.

    It is at times very daunting to try and create illustrations of my own for the novel since so many absolutely brilliant artists have come before me and done incredible work, but I do hope that this effort of mine can at least add something to the amazing body of work that surrounds the book.

    Having come this far through the book - farther than at times I might have ever imagined myself getting with this art - I can honestly say that I am beginning to see the shape of the end and am committed to continuing and finishing. I do hope you'll continue to follow along and see the next 190 or so.

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  5. Matt KishSeptember 2, 2010 at 10:08 AM

    Why thank you Pastoralice. You have seen this whole artistic journey for almost a decade now, so you know your opinion carries a lot of weight. As strange as this may seem (although perhaps you recognized it already) some of the visual inspiration for these illustrations, and for this one in particular, comes from the textile art and banners I used to stare it as a teenager in our Catholic church (admittedly bored out of my mind and waiting for mass to end) as well as the incidental illustrations in the missalettes.

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  6. pastoraliceSeptember 3, 2010 at 8:44 PM

    Matt--even the dumb felt banners and things I grew up with are a huge inspiration. So clean lined and expressive. I actually love an illustration in the new Lutheran book of worship of the church year. Here's a tiny version of it: http://www.elca.org/~/media/Images/Growing%20in%20Faith/Worship/Seasons/TheChurchYearArtPrint.gif

    Al

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  7. Matt KishSeptember 4, 2010 at 10:10 AM

    Thank you Titus. This one really keeps growing on me. I had planned to sell almost all 552 of these illustrations when I finish, but this is becoming one of the tiny handful I may keep and frame for myself.

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  8. Matt KishSeptember 4, 2010 at 10:12 AM

    Alice, that's EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm talking about! That illustration is AMAZING and I really think that stuff like that was honestly as influential to me as Jack Kirby and comics. It all came together in some kind of quasi-religious pseudo-mythological personal cosmic narative which continues to play out to this day. Thanks for sharing that illustration, I really really dig it!

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