As a Thanksgiving surprise, I've shared images from Genevieve's Islands in the Sky themed gallery piece which she generously allowed me to preview here on the site. Back in July, when she was invited to show at the Mighty Nomad Gallery, I was proud and rather pleased that without my urging, she chose to use IITS characters as the subject for her piece. Going with the gallery's seasonal theme of "Snowball Fight", Genevieve and I brainstormed on some ideas together and the end result is a fun look at what the holidays are like when Kayli and Gordo are around.
If you're in the Los Angeles area and would like to see the the piece in person, as well as the works of many other talented artists, here is a link to the gallery details. The piece itself is a 25x30 framed Giclee print on Hahnmuhle Museum Etching paper and while the following tiny images don't really do the actual piece justice, we still wanted to share them with our IITS Readers. Enjoy!
(Click the images to see the larger version!)
Kayli is ambushed on her way to deliver some treats to her forest friends. Her enemies? Gordo, Manty, and...inexplicably, a trained baby arctic seal.
You can almost see a cross-section of Kayli's head,revealing cob web covered gears...slooowly turning.
"Yer killin' me here, lady!"
Hardworking patriots doing their part or opportunistic squirrels profiting from the bravery of the field mice? You decide.
The resistance is, in fact, futile.
Babs & Buster: The Final ChapterGenevieve and I would like to wish all our readers a Happy Thanksgiving...whether or not all of them actually take part in the yearly gorging on turkey flesh. Have a great weekend, everyone!
P.S. If you're interested, yes...the framed print is available for purchase. Please contact myself or Genevieve for further details after December 5th. At some point in the future, Genevieve may opt to make smaller size, high quality prints available in a limited print run. We'll post more information here as it becomes available.
- Joseph
Wow! This is the best thing I've seen all day, and I've seen some cool stuff today. I love the holiday feel and there is so much going on in this pic but it doesn't feel cluttered or out of place. Aonther stunning piece of work from Genevieve. Who came up with the concept or idea on this one? Its very detailed and tells a story in one frame. Nice one guys! Keep up the postings and work. Happy Thanksgiving to all! Already had mah turkey but I see more in my near future. Peace~
ReplyDeletep.s. I'd be interested in a print for sure. I dig this piece, in or out of the holidays! =D
Heya Mike,
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving! Just arrived in L.A. at my family's place. Genevieve is still in the Bay Area visiting her folks so she might not respond till after she gets back (not sure when that is). Anyway, I'm glad you really enjoyed the piece...you should see the thing framed, it's really something else. We'll post pics from the gallery when we get them.
To answer your question: As with all things IITS, Genevieve and I always collaborate on the ideas. In general, I provide the spark but it's Genevieve who ultimately must execute on the ideas I provide and she really knocked this one out of the park. She would ask my feedback regularly on this one but when it comes down to it, she does all the hard work. The gallery showing itself is unrelated to IITS, Genevieve was invited because of her talent but since she chose IITS characters for the subject, I was more than happy to help her out. =)
I'm glad you could see all the fun story elements in the piece and you're right, Genevieve managed to include almost every one of our ideas without making it look cluttered.
By the way, we actually planned FOUR pieces and each one was supposed to tell a small part of a larger story. Due to time constraints, we decided that this particular piece would be the best one to do for the gallery. However, Genevieve did rough out the other three and if she ever finds the time, she tells me she'd still like to finish them. Maybe she'll have to release one each year around the holidays. =)
- Joseph
Hey Mike!
ReplyDeleteI am so thrilled you like it! Thank you for your generous compliments and I'm glad you enjoyed each of the little story scenes without feeling it was cluttered. In an earlier version there were a lot more snowballs and explosions everywhere but I had to omit them because they kept distracting the eye. I felt the composition that I ended up with was cleaner, directed your eye more, and still felt like a snowball war.
I'm happy you stopped by the site and got to see it. I'm also glad to hear that you'd be interested in a print even if it wasn't around the holidays! Actually, Joe and I were thinking about making these into Christmas cards, but we weren't sure about the interest level.
Thanks again and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
~Genevieve
Totally love the piece, very well done :)
ReplyDeleteHeh, if you guys have a print of this by Wondercon I'll totally pick that up. (:
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteWe'll see what we can do. The prints are sorta non-standard in size and ratio. Also, Genevieve is calling the shots on when and how they'll be printed. We'll keep people posted on the site.
- Joseph
Hey Chris!
ReplyDeleteThanks a bunch for checking my work out and I'm glad you like it!! Also, thanks for expressing your interest in a print! It's likely to happen someday and Wondercon will be the venue for it. I think Joe might have mentioned that I had 3 more paintings in progress. Hopefully by then I'll have at least another one done! ^__^
~Genevieve
This is a really awesome piece of art. I love the sense of motion and how the pieces of the story feed into each other. Can't wait to see what you have next at Wondercon!
ReplyDeleteHey Trevor,
ReplyDeleteWe'll do our best and try to have something for WonderCon!
- Joseph