It was just a bookish sort of day yesterday.
The R.Crumb Handbook
A very kind friend (Hi Julie) presented me with a copy of this recently published book. There’s a major exhibition of his work at the Whitechapel gallery in London. I’m sure you’re all familiar with his cartoons so will understand that lecherous old hippies like me remember Fritz the Cat and Keep on Truckin’ with fondness. The book comes with a CD of Crumb playing banjo with various groups. One track is called ‘My Girl’s Pussy’ and is an old very rude song! Here’s a tip: If you want to check out the lyrics don’t google ‘my girls pussy’! At least if you add ‘lyrics’ you get a slightly cleaner response.
Rose Petal Tea by Cally Highfield
Ok, its a novel and I haven’t even read it but there is a local art connection. The author, 19 (yes 19!) year old Cally is also an artist and the book includes some of her illustrations and she’s already working on another graphic novel project. She has a cool website with all the details. The book is published by Authors Online which may be an idea of interest to anyone out there looking for a publisher.
Arty Magazine
The last few days I’ve been reading Arty Greatest Hits which is a book-sized collection of pieces from the first four years mixed in with new items. Arty is a London based art fanzine run by Cathy Lomax since 2001 and edited by Paul Murphy.
‘The greatest thing about Arty is that it’s artists writing and drawing about art, not in the faux voice of acedemia or the shoes of a critic, but from where they stand themselves as artists’
So I was just interested to see what it was like and I’m quite impressed, the fact that its still going is no mean achievement. It would be nice to have the same thing here but I should think it requires a large mass of artists to provide the required input as well as enough monied art-lovers willing to pay for it. artymagazine.com.