Friday, January 19, 2007

A PITIFUL THING LIKE AN OAT


When he started out he prayed, "Dear God, I want to be an artist." And he heard an answer: "Yes, be an artist." Then at the end of his life he thought perhaps he had erred. He said, "Dear God, I poured everything I had into making pictures! How lamentable, how short-sighted, how wasteful." And again he heard an answer: "Yes, how lamentable, how short-sighted, how wasteful."

Now children, if you've enjoyed this little story I'd like to make a suggestion: sell everything you have and make the journey, quick as a rat, to Angouleme where the picture shown above will be on display as part of a large exhibition of JW's comics and drawings at the CNBDI as part of the annual International Comics Festival, Jan 24 - 28. You will see in this picture, and in others such as The Holy Land and Dialog at Eleusis, that the case against art is being powerfully built up even as the ice caps melt and polar bears drown.

I hope to make posts to this "blog" from France if the technology allows. In the event no such posts are made, and in light of the fact that so few have been made recently, well, I apologise. The temporal dream is fading and it is harder and harder to retain scraps of it. Yes, that mittenful of snow is fast becoming a memory. A small, meaningless memory.

19 Comments:

Blogger Cassidy Curtis said...

What an infinitely rewarding image. Is it possible to be nostalgic for a place that doesn't exist?

10:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brilliant. This work is so good...it's inspiring.

10:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Absolutely stunning, Jim. Having seen the snippets you've posted as this work came to be, I've been greatly anticipating seeing the finished product. Amazing. Thanks!

10:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The shading, the detail, the depth of field...

We are so lucky that someone with Jim's chops wants to show us these things.

2:40 PM  
Blogger jimmycity said...

Beyond the beauty of the dimension of the fantastic, which jumps right out at you, is the supreme grace and and realism of something so simple as the window in this breath-taking piece. The Dutch Uncle of Dreamland, indeed!

2:59 PM  
Blogger wayn3w said...

wow...

8:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

wow, Great!
I really tear myself up on that question regularly and often,...
Am I wasting mylife in formt of the drawing board... seriously..
Art used to have a specific purpose, telling a story, explaint in symbol how the world/universe works...
Now alot of art seems to be little more than decoration and juxtapositioning on peices of our collective neurosis/ degenerated state..
There's and old artist phrase... " when in doubt, go back to nature."
Oh, well?

6:38 PM  
Blogger john m winters said...

this is now my favorite charcoal of yours, ever. print maybe?

10:43 PM  
Blogger Tom Dougherty said...

Bon Voyage, mon ami! This honor is nothing you don't deserve, and all your honors are long overdue.

Congratulations!

11:04 PM  
Blogger Aeron said...

One of your best, Jim. I always look forward to these windows into your magnificent fantasty worlds. And what a boring world this would be without windows like these to look into.

11:18 AM  
Blogger MRC said...

jeeze louise, jim!

1:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Master Jim,

Does this mean that you'll be in Angouleme? Does this mean that if, on said day, I leave my abode near Paris and take a train to the convention, I'll be able to meet you there and perhaps even have a chat?

That'd just be great...

6:49 AM  
Blogger --MC said...

Make sure and remember every crivvelin' detail about your trip, so's we can know what it was like for you to be at large in Angouleme during comics season.

12:47 PM  
Blogger Austin said...

It's gorgeous! How big?

8:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with what Aeron said. Awe-inspiring work Jim.

7:31 AM  
Blogger BellyLuv0SoFine said...

Do we end up feeling that way, no matter what we do with our pathetic little lives? What would you rather have done? Look what you made!! It is so breathtakingly out there. I am filled with the same awe and wonder I felt as a child, hearing, for the first time, that awfully wonderful love story of Beauty and her Beast. (Nothing like Disney!) Thank you Jim! I love what you made.

3:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

are you saying that art is a dead end?...are you going to retire?...are you disillusioned in the extreme?...I want to understand...

3:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hello, sorry, je ne parle que français. J'ai eu le privilege d'aller à Angouleme pour le festival de la bd et visiter votre exposition au CNBDI, je ne connaissais pas votre travail...et je voulais juste vous temoigner mon enthousiasme ... J'adore !!! Merci !!!

jbvolpino@hotmail.com ... from paris

2:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

!!!!!!

This is a work of true genius.

eric

12:13 PM  

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