INVISIBLE CITIES: Zora

The seventh of Calvino's 55 Invisible Cities and my third illustration for the project, Zora. You can see the entire series so far, which includes work from my partners in this project Joe Kuth and Leighton Connor at our tumblr Seeing Calvino.

"Beyond six rivers and three mountain ranges rises Zora, a city that no one, having seen it, can forget. But not because, like other memorable cities, it leaves an unusual image in your recollections. Zora has the quality of remaining in your memory point by point, in its succession of streets, of houses along the streets, and of doors and windows in the houses, though nothing in them possesses a special beauty or rarity. Zora’s secret lies in the way your gaze runs over patterns following one another as in a musical score where not a note can be altered or displaced."

10 by 8 inches
acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper
May 13, 2014

A BESTIARY: Felicity

14 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
April 20, 2014

INVISIBLE CITIES: Zaira

The fourth of Calvino's 55 Invisible Cities, and my second contribution to the project is Zaira, pictured below. You can see the work of Joe Kuth and Leighton Connor, the other two artists working on this project, at our tumblr Seeing Calvino.

The challenge with drawing Zaira was to find a way to visually show the relationship of architecture to events that take place in, on and around that architecture over time in a manner which is both complex and recognizable. I struggled with this one, but I am quite pleased with the result.

Title: Zaira

10 inches by 8 inches

ink on watercolor paper

April 20, 2014

INVISIBLE CITIES: Diomira

The third collaborative project I am happy to announce is a series of illustrations depicting each of the cities from Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. I am undertaking this endeavor in partnership with two good friends who are also artists, Leighton Connor and Joe Kuth. These will exist on a tumblr named Seeing Calvino, since we hope to continue to explore his writing in future projetcs.

The way this works is that each week, on Wednesday, one of us will post our illustration of one of the cities. We are moving through the book sequentially, from beginning to end, as one might undertake a journey. For now, we have established the rotation of me first, followed by Joe, followed by Leighton, and back to me to repeat the order again. It is a daunting and exciting project because there is so much latitude in Calvino's pieces, and so many ways to stumble. I feel like I'm getting a good handle on it, and I am excited to see what Joe and Leighton do as well.

I will be cross-posting my own illustrations on my blog and tumblr as well as the Seeing Calvino tumblr, but you will have to visit Seeing Calvino to see the work of Joe and Leighton. Here is my first piece, and the first of the Invisible Cities. This one time, I am reproducing the entirety of what Calvino wrote about Diomira, to provide some context.

"Leaving there and proceeding for three days toward the east, you reach Diomira, a city with sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theater, a golden cock that crows each morning on a tower. All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities. But the special quality of this city for the man who arrives there on a September evening, when the days are growing shorter and the multicolored lamps are lighted all at once at the doors of the food stalls and from a terrace a woman's voice cries ooh!, is that he feels envy toward those who now believe they have once before lived an evening identical to this and who think they were happy, that time."

Title: Diomira

10 inches by 8 inches
ink on watercolor paper
March 31, 2014

A BESTIARY: Eth

11 inches by 14 inches
ink on watercolor paper
March 30, 2014

A word on the Bestiary

When I posted the first image in the series of drawings titled A Bestiary, I wrote "This is for a secret new project that may or may not come to fruition and may or may not be published. That is really all I can share now." Well now I can go into that a bit more.

I've had the opportunity to create illustrations for the work of writer Robert Kloss three times so far. First I did the cover and three interior illustrations for his novel The Alligators of Abraham, which you can see here. Second, I revisited The Alligators of Abraham for a series of five illustrations re-mixing that project for promotional use on a web site. You can see those pieces here. Finally, I was invited to create a series of illustrations for the book The Desert Places, which Robert co-wrote with Amber Sparks. Each of those experiences was intense, terrifying, invigorating and harrowing. However, for each of those projects, I was invited aboard after the writing was complete. That was an interesting way to work, and in some ways my process mirrored that of my explorations of Melville and Conrad, but I had been growing more and more curious about what might result from a true collaboration. This Bestiary is the start of that, and I am grateful to Robert for suggesting this and being so willing to work in such a way with me.

The way it works is this. Each week I draw a monstrous creature. I am responsible for creating it and naming it which, as you know, is essential. I send the image to Robert and he crafts a piece of writing based on or responding to or exploring or elaborating the beast I've brought to life in the art. We have no idea what the final shape of this project will be, how many beasts it will contain, whether it will be published, or how long this will continue. But so far the collaboration has gone very well and we both look forward to the changes and permutations it will bring. We intend at least one pass through the alphabet, for a total of 26 beasts, but we may attempt more. Also, once some of the written pieces are where Robert wants them to be, we will start sharing a few of those as well. I have seen the first one, which Robert wrote for the Armabrach, and I was shocked. It was utterly unexpected, nothing at all like I imagined, and so much the better because of that. Robert's writing constantly astounds me and I am absolutely thrilled to be working with him on this.

A BESTIARY: Duocephalus

11 inches by 14 inches
ink on watercolor paper
March 23, 2014

A BESTIARY: Catoblepas

14 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper
March 13, 2014

A BESTIARY: Baal's Drake

11 inches by 14 inches
ink on watercolor paper
March 7, 2014

A BESTIARY: Armabrach

This is for a secret new project that may or may not come to fruition and may or may not be published. That is really all I can share now.

Title: ARMABRACH

14 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
March 3, 2014

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad and Matt Kish

The long wait is over. My editor at Tin House Books, Tony Perez, was kind enough to rush me an advance copy of my new book, the illustrated Heart of Darkness. Diane Chonette and Jakob Vala took my illustrations and designed an utterly gorgeous book. As with my Moby-Dick in Pictures, this is truly a beautiful object and it just feels good in the hand. After nearly weeping with joy, jumping up and down a few times, high-fiving my wife, and then celebrating with a nice dinner, we took some photos of the book to give you an idea of how it looks. Special thanks to my wife for holding the book for me while I took these.

The front cover. I love how this is just an illustration on boards, with no dust jacket. It feels so much more direct this way. Perfect, given the nature of the novel.

One of the many brilliant design choices made by Diane and Jakob is the way that the front cover illustration wraps so perfectly around the spine and the back cover.

A view of the spine. Tin House has chosen a nice, thick, creamy paper stock that really soaks up the ink and makes the colors in the illustrations deep and rich. Some of that can be seen here, in the thickness of the book itself.

I was honored to have a say in some of the book design process and thrilled when Tony and Diane agreed that hand-drawn endpapers could be included. It's the little touches like this that make the book such a wonderful object. Interestingly, I had these endpapers in mind from the very beginning - a wall of vegetation, with a small image of Marlow in the lower corner.

The book closes with a reversed image of the endpapers. The placement of Marlow was deliberate on my part, signifying in a visual way that the tale begins and ends with him.

A close-up of the endpapers. And Marlow.

The title page. Almost terrifying to see my name next to Conrad's there. Good God.

Again, a brilliant touch from Diane and Jakob. I was asked to write a brief introduction to the book, and this introduction of mine is separated from Conrad's tale by this beautiful detail of the endpapers, enlarged and filtered. The reader is truly penetrating the wall of the jungle and entering the heart of darkness.

Some samples of the interior spreads. I am extremely pleased with the reproduction of my art. Everything is suffused with bright and acidic greens and yellow, and the images seem to almost radiate the heat and the sickness and the savagery of the African jungle. Additionally, in some of these images, you can see that the binding of this book is sewn rather than glued. Another nice touch.

The image which Diane used as the basis for her elegantly and amazingly designed cover.

I don't believe I've posted the piece below yet, so this may be the first time it's been seen online.

One final bit of fantastic detail is that the book includes what is essentially an index, listing the page number of each illustration, the quote from Conrad's text that functions as each title, and the media. Completely unnecessary, but again, so perfect in keeping with my vision of the book and the concept of this as a truly visual narrative. 

The release date still stands as November 12, although that seems to be approaching with terrifying quickness now. I am really pleased with how this turned out. For so many months, this book existed as nothing but a stack of illustrations in my studio and a concept in my head. Diane, Jakob, and my editor Tony were so receptive to my thoughts, and so full of brilliant ideas of their own. This book is everything I hoped it could be. I am proud.