{"id":1882,"date":"2010-02-03T22:01:37","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T04:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1882"},"modified":"2010-02-04T08:50:28","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T14:50:28","slug":"on-being-an-alice-fan-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1882","title":{"rendered":"On Being an Alice<\/em> Fan Right Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Now, isn’t that the Mad Tea-Party as you’ve never quite seen it before? That comes from the mind of illustrator Oleg Lipchenko<\/strong><\/a>, but more on that in a minute. <\/p>\n

It’s about to be a good time to be a fan of the novel for which Lewis Carroll<\/strong><\/a> was most famously known, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, or—in the words of Martin Gardner<\/strong><\/a>—“a very curious, complicated kind of nonsense.” And the reason it’s about to be a good time to be an Alice<\/em> fan? This<\/a><\/strong> new film adaptation. Publishers are already taking advantage of the upcoming Alice<\/em> craze, including Chronicle books, who have recently released this<\/strong><\/a>. (More on that later, since—as the Illustration Junkie I am—you can bet I’m dying to see that one.)<\/p>\n

Another case-in-point? Illustrator (and designer and teacher<\/strong><\/a>) Bill Carman<\/strong><\/a>, who has visited 7-Imp several times and whom, I swear, I should bring on as a consultant or something, tells me that Gallery Nucleus<\/strong><\/a> in Alhambra, California, is planning an upcoming exhibit, a tribute show, called “Curioser and Curioser: Inspired by Alice in Wonderland<\/em>.” Here’s<\/a><\/strong> the link with the information; the exhibit begins February 27th. (How much do I love that they’re also featuring “Zombies in Love,”<\/strong><\/a> but I digress.)<\/p>\n

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The gallery’s invited “artists of the feature film and beyond to create their vision of the iconic story and celebrate it’s lasting legacy.” Bill will be contributing a few paintings himself, and I’m sharing them today. Here’s Bill’s Dude, What are You Wearing?<\/em>, but he says we can call it Tweedles<\/em> for short. (A tribute to these guys<\/a><\/strong>, of course.) <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here is his Hatter image below, though I stress that it’s a work-in-progress. In fact, Bill’s sharing the birth, so to speak, and growth of the image over at his blog. (“I feel a little naked showing all of my marks, snots and goobers as I go,” he writes, “but this is an important part of my process. The bad brushstrokes and ‘mistakes’ all tell me something and could lead to beautiful passages which would otherwise stay hidden were I more careful.”) Here<\/strong><\/a> are the first two versions, and the one you see here is the third. To see the final, polished illustration, check out Bill’s Studio<\/a><\/strong><\/em> later this week. <\/p>\n

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Incidentally, Bill tells me that Nucleus is really good about posting all of the work from their shows. In fact, the pieces will be posted on the site all during the exhibit — after opening night. So, be sure to take a gander, if—like me—you’re way far away and can’t take in the exhibit yourself. <\/p>\n

Back to that opening illustration…That comes from Oleg Lipchenko’s<\/strong><\/a> adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em>, released by Tundra Books in November. (I have Colleen<\/strong><\/a> and Little Willow<\/strong><\/a> to thank for emailing and telling me I just had<\/em> to see these illustrations.) Because you know I’m a Review Nerd and like to share the professionals’ point-of-view, I’ll add: Publishers Weekly<\/em> called Lipchenko’s illustrations “gracefully expressive” and called the book a “lovely and faithful interpretation,” while School Library Journal<\/em> applauded the “{e}legant book design and sophisticated artwork,” adding:<\/p>\n

Lipchenko’s illustrations, in monochromatic sepia and black-and-white tones, combine precisely drawn detail with broad architectural perspectives…. Ever-changing perspectives, dramatic shadowing and shading, and layouts that have an Escheresque quality make the artwork remarkable and innovative, though geared toward a more mature audience. The relationship between the text and pictures offers much room for exploration and interpretation…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Yeah. I’m still poring over my copy. I was able to get some art from it today to share. Here’s more from the Mad Tea-Party: <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s the same spread in two cuts so that you can see it in more detail: <\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

And here are the left and right sides of the endpapers: <\/p>\n


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Curiouser and curiouser, yes? And surreal and gloriously bizarre in about seven different directions. <\/p>\n

Many more images from the book can be seen at Oleg’s website<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

Illustrations from Bill Carman used with his permission. All rights reserved. <\/p>\n

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2009 by Oleg Lipchenko. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Tundra Books, Ontario.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now, isn’t that the Mad Tea-Party as you’ve never quite seen it before? That comes from the mind of illustrator Oleg Lipchenko, but more on that in a minute. It’s about to be a good time to be a fan of the novel for which Lewis Carroll was most famously known, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}