Through work, I’ve become more exposed to art. Art and me don’t necessarily don’t get along, but we definitely didn’t work hard at hanging out more than once in a blue moon. Work has cultivated a bit of taste in art in me (somewhat random, mostly minimal, but still hard to describe) but more importantly, it’s reawakened my interest in original comic book art. I’d actually go as far as wondering — questioning — why the “art scenes” of the world are not more aware of extremely talented people like Jim Mahfood who are interested in crossing the gap.
below: Sinister Percussion by Jim Mahfood
Nonetheless, the recent realization that, I do, in fact, like art, seems to have conveniently coincided with probably one of the most fun art shows I’ve read about. Full of Pryde is a show curated by Douglas E. Sherwood (one of the cool people from Oni Press) and Jason Leivian of Floating World Comics. The show (inspired by Douglas’ personal experiences with having hemophilia his entire life) acts as a fundraiser for the Hemophilia Treatment Center at Oregon Health & Science University. The organizers sked dozens of comic artists, graphic designers, and illustrators to do their rendition of Kitty Pryde — the spunky eternal teenager* X-Man.
With some amazing results (and the fact that Kitty was always a personal favorite of mine) the show looks… well, fun, like Kitty herself. The character is captured with varying success; however, the ones that get it really do get it.
Below are some of my favorite pieces from the exhibit. However, don’t take my word for it, check out the site.
Left: Kevin Cross; right: Aleks Sennwald
Left: Barnaby Ward; right: Tom Neely
Left: Ian McEwan; right: Zachary Baldus
Of all of them, I think Hope Larson captures the spirit of the Prydster best. While she’s usually mentioned in one breath with husband Bryan Lee O’Malley (of Scott Pilgrim fame) she’s actually insanely talented in her own right.
The works are currently being auctioned on eBay for the HTC at OHSU, so get them while they’re hot. Except the ones I have my eye on, that is.
* = unless you ask Warren Ellis, that is.
Ohhh, Marvel and it’s elastic timelines…
