qucikies

what i'm reading now...

2011!2 months in already. so far this year i have read

the emperor of all maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Galapagos by kurt vonnegut

the dispossessed by ursula K leguin

the moon is a harsh mistress by Heinlein

which were all excellent and i highly recommend,

I am currently reading

1. Gilead by Maryilynne Robinson

i plan on reading the following books, possibly in this order

2. Angle of repose by Wallace stegner
3.short stories by Flannery O' connor

4. Candy by luke davies

5. babel-17 by samuel delany

6. the border trilogy by cormac mcarthy

7. Star Maker by olaf stapleton

8. Autumn of the Patriarch by gabriel garcia marquez

9. Walden by thoreau

10. a people's history of the united states by howard zinn

11. arctic dreams by barry lopez

12. intruder in the dust by william faulkner

13. A confederacy of dunces- john kennedy toole

14. the master and margarita by mikhael bulgakov

15. space trilogy by c.s. Lewis

16.Golem 100 by Alfred bester

17. the violent man by A. E. Von Vogt

18. the Idiot by fyodor Dostoevsky

19. camp concentration by Thomas disch

20. As I lay dying by William Faulkner

21.life of Pi by yann Martel

22. redwall by Brian Jacques

23. to the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

24. the famished road by Ben okri

i guess if i read em all in a year, it would be pretty good, after a short non reading period after high school my appetite for books has steadily increased. i find it helpful to have a stack of books ready to go, so i don't have to look for one when i finish a book and am hungry for the next one.

i will definetly make a post with table information for wondercon before it happens, our books will be for sale! and i will be sitting there drawing

-george

Great Art hidden in plain site in San Francisco

*All the following images are from google image search, I was visiting the Rincon annex murals the other day, it struck me that a lot of people might not know about it. Each city offers a lot of art, which is stuck there, it will never leave, perhaps the locals take for granted, because to visit is free and they have been around for decades. Here are 3 such examples;

1 - the Frank Brangwyn murals in herbst theatre.

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Frank Brangwyn Information

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In my opinion Frank brangwyn is the greatest muralist who has ever been, so if you live in San Francisco you should feel lucky that some of his masterpieces are located here.

Herbst theatre is a smallish theatre located on van ness st across from city hall. It is worth seeing any show here just to glimpse the 8 murals frank brangwyn painted in 1915. these painting have really found a home here, even though they were originally painted for something else.

Brangwyn was born in Belgium but is known as being a British mural painter.

Dean cornwell studied with brangwyn for a bit.

there are a total of 8 murals, 4 on each wall each set depicting the classic 4 elements, earth, air, fire and water.

2- Rincon annex murals

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Anton Refregier Information

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These murals are great, and it is free to walk in!

There are 27 murals, they are painted by a russian immigrant named anton refreiger in 1940 as one of the last depression era public works murals. A sort of golden age where the american government became a great patron of the arts through things like the WPA.

San Francisco has several WPA era murals, but these are in my opinion the finest.

3- Palace hotel - Pied Piper bar

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Maxfield Parrish Infromation

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The palace hotel is on market street. It is old and beautiful.

this is the maxfield parrish painting in the bar.

This painting is a real beauty. Since Parrish is such a forgotten American great, this painting is the only example of his work I have ever seen.

My mother took me here when I was ten years old to look at the painting, but she was asked to leave because children are not allowed in bars.

I hope this infromation leads some people to view these great works of art for the first time. happy new year and buy my book!

drawing

buy my book!

buy my book!

Book signing at Gallery Nucleus Dec 4th at 2pm

I will be having a book signing at gallery nucleus, which is super exciting!

Producing this book is something I am very proud of because I have loved books my entire life, i read a lot as a kid and still do. I find it amazing that entire experiences, adventures, whole life's work, entire bodies of knowledge or anything imaginable can be communicated from author to reader, in such a controlled method. when ben, konstantin, nate and I were creating this book, we knew what we wanted, a large book, with no text crammed full of images, a sort of visual assault, a celebration of drawing. i was inspired by the sketchbooks of heinrich kley, and other dover sketchbooks, jerome opena, katsuya terada, Igor-alban Chevalier and others. I think it was the clarity of intend that made the book so solid.

i made a video of me flipping through the book

gallery nucleus will be the exclusive online seller, starting dec 4th, if you live in the bay area and want a copy just send me an email.

different drawings

a few black and whites