Pilgrim Felt Dizzy – NTMC

He cleaned himself a little in one of the ornamental fountains that were on the edge of the commodity arrival floor. Then he went into the board meeting room.
- R. A. Lafferty, “Not To Mention Camels”

Shortly after LAFFCON2 ended we artists involved (Lissanne Lake, Yakov Varganov, Bill Rogers, and I) thought it would be fun to pick a Lafferty story and each of us complete an illustration in time for next year's conference. We agreed upon the book Not To Mention Camels (NTMC) and inadvertently changed the shape of the event in the process.

When organizers sat down to pick the year's themes and presentations they looked to the artwork for inspiration. Talks on Snuffles and Not To Mention Camels became two of a handful of hours dedicated to R A Lafferty that day.

And it was fun. I loved being part of our own little semi-secret creative pact. Lissanne's artwork is always dynamic and Yakov produced what I though was some of his best work.

For my part, I had barely finished this illustration before hitting print and shutting down my computer only to quickly pack a carryon bag for my flight to New Jersey the next morning.

NTMC is a book full of grotesque action. I had been looking forward to finding a balance between gore and cartoonish humor. There were three moments that stuck out from the first half of the book, and I produced a sketch for each. But as often happens one image persisted beyond the others.

The character Pilgrim, who the book follows, a powerful and cultish figurehead, has just gotten the shit kicked out of him (and a pint or so of blood) and returns disheveled and light-headed to his boardroom meeting. He's both confused and somewhat impressed with his assailant. And as he licks his wounds and contemplates his next move the board members at the table seem completely oblivious to his distress. That isolated moment of complicated and contradictory emotions became my favorite image. And eventually I found a way to put it on paper.

Regarding the illustration I wanted to make the background the true character of the piece. Which looking back was probably a good call, as what is more boring than a corporate board meeting? I tried to play into the cultish aspects of Pilgrim, with clear church elements in the board room, but also a tribal, shamanistic shape in the structure at the center of the frame, it's arms reaching up toward the ceiling and it's legs running down the center of the table. The ceiling is also a portal of sorts, branching off in many directions and giving access to multiple dimension of reality.

The bottled water is just water, a common staple in today's corporate meetings and I felt somehow brings an element of humor to the piece.

Pilgrim Felt Dizzy (NTMC) sketch

LAFFCON3

The third annual R A Lafferty conference took place June 9, 2018. Once again I had the honor of illustrating the official poster for the event. A little known snippet of trivia is what influence artwork had in shaping this year's focus. It turns out a great deal (more on this in a later post.) Part of that influence was my choice to illustrate the short story Snuffles which then later became the subject of an hour long Podcast during the day.

Posters for the previous years had featured the author, in one fashion or another, and I had the feeling that it was time to move beyond portraits and into wilder content that might appeal to new readers and attendees.

I chose Snuffles because it was one of the most loved Lafferty stories, because I'd just finished another illustration which I knew could make a good back cover for the program booklet, and because Lafferty himself admitted that he was probably Snuffles, if he was any character in his writings. Thus, as a transition away from Lafferty portraits, this subject matter made the most sense.

The initial image from the reading was of two figures walking through a field of strange fruit while a large teddy bear like creature observed from rocks above the horizon.

I struggled with this illustration. And even now I feel uncomfortable looking at it, though I'm thrilled with the compliments people have offered. It's not that I'm displeased with the results, it's just that I can still feel the bruises where I wrestled with it.

Elements of the short story I tried to incorporate include the sense that Snuffles (the bear-like creature) was the center of all things and tied to all things, that the world was mercurial and wavering in a psychedelic fashion. The red flowers among the yellow grass are poppies. And there are blue representations of both barley and cannabis in the lower corners.