havockblog

For the cover of the handout to go with the ‘The Bible in One Hour’ session on the Gospel of Mark I wanted to do a take on the Transfiguration. The description of Jesus’ clothes becoming “dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them” has always made me feel more like it was an advertisement for washing powder; I’ve always felt that (a bit Isaiah’s calling) it is a flawed description of something incomprehensible (I like to look at the video for Autechre’s ‘Gantz Graf’ and imagine it to be as alien (though - possibly - less noisy)).
Which in some way is how I generally feel about faith - that we try to put something that is inherently incomprehensible in ‘our terms’.

The Prophecy of Amos this week. This was the first cover I did for this series. I find Amos quite an evocative book - there is the unremitting condemnation of nations: all-consuming fire, destruction (which includes Israel, which Ben Edson posted an interesting reflection on when the lectionary moved through the Prophecy of Ames while Israel moved through Gaza in January 2009).
And yet at the end there is language that speaks of ‘planting Israel in their own land’. There are really challenging ideas of ‘a chosen people’, ‘taking sides’, promises, and at the same time there is a strong reminder of Christian roots in Judaism - it is part of the same story - and questions about how that heritage is dealt with and responded to.

Not Rapunzel though I’ve been wondering whether there is a link between Rahab and her. I have been (or should probably say, am still in the process of) producing a set of handout covers for Simon Taylor’s The Bible in One Hour series. Tonight saw the second evening on the Book of Joshua, taking a look both at historical context and contemporary reading. I’d love to say something more profound about it but will first be having a second listen to the talk, of which I have been reliably informed an mp3 should shortly be posted on aforementioned website.
I like how the story of Rahab stands out against the otherwise ‘Israel against the world’ feel that the Book of Joshua can have, and like to think of the cord she ties in her window as something of a lifeline to a more humane and humble attitude, hence the cover image for this week.

The can of worms labelled “who draws the line that says, ‘fair wages,’” is opened in the most recent leading article in the St James Ethics Center’s newsletter. A plethora of questions arises from it, as well as this illustration.

Gnook works particularly well on cards, I find. Here he is having his nose dusted with snow from a cloud-like balloon. Or a balloon-like cloud. Very seasonal.

“Pulling a Sickie” is the subject of the leading article of the most recent Living Ethics magazine, and this illustration accompanies it. Another opportunity to do some painting (though I have been getting more of that done recently as well, on canvas and all - watch this space), and to play with colour.
Incidentally, each illustration has a soundtrack as the songs I was listening to while making them get hard-wired to the illustration (in my head, at least). Can I note that for this one it’s the Afghan Whigs’ “Miles iz Dead” and their cover of “My World is Empty…“. I’m not sure whether it is worthwhile mentioning, but hey - it’s immortalised.

Another birthday card, another appearance for Gnook. This time he’s gathering dry wood in what seems a cold, windy and autumny forest. I am really enjoying this black and white line-and-raster feel, pitched as it feels between limitation (in being starkly black and white) and potential for atmosphere within those limits.
The title is a ‘cut-and-shut’ of the Dutch ’sprokkelhout’ (dry wood collected for making fires with) and ‘woud’ (which is Dutch for ‘wood’ or ‘forest’).
Anyway, another ‘happy birthday’.

This is a rather worrying piece of chocolate mousse, or should we say Moussolini. It’s a poor pun as puns go, but it was mentioned before and seemed worth immortalising at the right moment, and I am afraid this is the birthday for that to happen. I promise we’ll be sailing back to the shores of reverence (or whimsy, at least) shortly.
The quote (”Proletarian and Fascist Italy stands up a third time, strong, proud, and united as never before.”) is lifted verbatim from Mussolini’s declaration of war on France and England - it’s strange reading this kind of authoritative claims about and on behalf of a country, frightening to see someone so singularly take control of a country and a people. Even if they are a chocolate mousse. Though that somehow makes it seem slightly less frightening.

Frugality galore on this year’s St James Christmas card, with a simple shadow show on the wall stealing the show from a cornucopia of presents. This was a really nice illustration to do, lots of detail and texture to ‘get right’ - and light to play with as well; light being one of my favourites to work with.

To quote from Simon Longstaff’s editorial piece in the September issue (I know - I’ve been slow to post it) of Living Ethics that this illustration accompanies:
“[..] it is essential that the Public Service give comprehensive advice – based on a competent and sincere attempt to discern the public interest. In my opinion, the advice should always be developed and tendered to ministers – whether requested or not.” (Read the full article here)
From which I took the words ‘discern’ and ‘public interest’ to be fairly challenging - in particular as in the above context, though it can on occasion be equally challenging to ensure that - when our opinion is asked or to be considered - we ourselves do not default to our own interests.