Identity Crisis

Let me go on about myself for a paragraph and then I will talk about something that is hopefully more interesting. Obviously I have not posted for a while, I hope to do so more regularly. I think it will be more thoughts than the work I have been doing. With that said, I have doing a little painting and drawing again after months of not. No promises.

I have been working in a bookstore for the last six months or so. In addition to being exposed to a lot of stories and writers there is a lot of cover art to digest. Things often come around again but it seems the age of illustration for book covers has past, the golden age that is. I in no way mean contemporary covers are unattractive or less, but they do have a different aesthete to them. I feel that it is possible to generally date a book by the cover art. There are trends and styles of periods that seem to be near universal.

Even the pulp and schlock of the day has a charm hard to find today. I think in part is the "hand crafted" aspect of the covers. Even non-pictorial covers were lain out by hand. Again, this is not a judgment call but there is a line that has been drawn and crossed, an era has passed. I think though there is, like spelunking or archeology, a wealth of experience to be discovered here.

I suppose some example would be nice. Edward Gorey's name recently came up in this context. I imagine he is well known enough but he has dozens of book covers to his credit that might well be over looked as a body of work. There are suites of books with his art work, Henry james for example.

Where am I going with this? I am just saying that there is a lot to see out there that was from an analogue age that we may not see the likes of again. Stuff I think is enjoyable and worthwhile. This includes other media like record albums that are now collectors fair rather a general consumable. I should mention that there are outside movements like guerilla fliers and poster makers who resemble something of this stuff. Also I might not know about much of it is there wasn't the internet. Nonetheless the age of Kindle and i-tunes has its drawbacks and one of them is loss of a venue for art and artists.
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