I’m always a little hesitant to write constructively about contemporary art, specifically painting, as I don’t feel well educated enough. Obviously I can write about what sticks out for me personally, why certain things make me feel the way they do, etc. — but I still wish I had more of a historical context to include in my observations. There are many, many artists, movements, and philosophies that I’m not aware of, and should be.

Painting, by Yuichi Yokoyama, is probably the most instant appreciation I’ve had for a book of work by a contemporary artist, ever. It helps (me) that his roots are in manga and storytelling, and his comics (only New Engineering and Travel published so far in the US, by Picturebox) are equally at the top of my favorites list. Since ultimately the things that I appreciate are totally subjective, I’ll simply list them, then try to explain them: color palette, use of screentone, composition, architectural influence, and fantasy vs. reality. Yokoyama’s color palette is wonderful. It is fairly varied yet always feels consistent — bright, exciting and inviting. He then generally accentuates this with spotted usage of screentone, more typically used for shading and textures and such in comics, but executed with such precision in these works: sometimes as shading and sometimes in seemingly inconsequential places, but there is certainly a purpose. Though his compositions range from the more formal to the more abstract, they always seem to tell a story, and are intelligent and purposeful, even when the most abstract. This has been written about before in regards to his comics (and I highly recommend reading Tom K’s thoughts), but the influence of modernist architectural sensibilities is prevalent in Yokoyama’s paintings as well. And over-arching all of these characteristics is his ability to blend reality and fantasy so effortlessly. I tend to be drawn to more fantastical works of art, but I still need these to be grounded in some true-to-life way to make the most impact (probably because I always long for the most fantastic to be true), and Yokoyama certainly accomplishes that.

I hope to see some of his work in person sometime, and I eagerly await any more future translated releases (especially The Garden, which looks amazing).

See all images tagged with Yuichi Yokoyama in The Forest Archives.

It’s obviously taken a little longer than expected to get started with this blog. But what better way to start off than motivating myself with a little self-indulgence. Since stopping The Drama almost exactly three years ago (November 10, 2006… yes, I know this), I’ve had mixed emotions about it. I can’t get away from some of the negative things that I experienced, but the positive things completely out-weigh them, and every once in awhile it just takes a little something to remind me of that. Two amazing “monographs” came out in the past few months, both featuring “comic” artists that contributed to The Drama regularly — Zak Sally’s Like a Dog (128 pages, Fantagraphics Books, 2009) and Marc Bell’s Hot Potatoe (272 pages, Drawn and Quarterly, 2009). Each book contains some of their contributions, and it’s always exciting for me to see these in context with a larger body of work.

Like a Dog collects Zak Sally’s short comics from the past 15 years. I remember the day Zak announced his retirement from the band Low, and that he would be concentrating on both his own work and publishing through La Mano 21. It seemed like that was when a majority of people started taking notice of his work, but he had been making great comics for a long while before then, and seeing them together in this collection is satisfying. Most of the work is in black and white, which really helps emphasize his drawing style; stark and powerful. He utilizes contrast so well, always in tandem with the mood of the particular story he is telling. In “Dread”, a collaboration with writer Brian Evenson, this is especially apparent in the mostly typographic pages, simple illustrations, and excellent use of negative space.

The back of the book contains several pages of notes and stories and explanations of each of the short comics featured, and even though Sally prefaces it with a warning, this is my favorite part! It’s very interesting to read and only helps to appreciate his work even more. Sally included such a nice note about The Drama that I have to quote it here:

Thanks Zak, it means a lot, really. I always looked forward to his contributions each issue, and I couldn’t recommend this book more, no matter whether you are familiar with his work or not.

See all images tagged with Zak Sally in The Forest Archives.

Marc Bell’s Hot Potatoe: Fine Ahtwerks: 2001-2008 is mind-blowing. Over 250 pages of drawings, collage, watercolor, comics, essays and so much more, all with his usual tongue-in-cheek attitude, but somehow made even more-so sophisticated and thought provoking because of it. Though I have followed his work for a long time, I had never actually seen a “proper” show of it in person, and was able to see the book launch and corresponding exhibit Hot Potatoe at Adam Baumbold here in New York. Being able to see everything up close, to witness the obsessiveness of his drawings and penmanship and ideas, was great. I would need at least a week of just observing the work to fully take it in, so fortunately this book exists.

Also, I would be mistaken to not mention that Shrimpy and Paul and Friends is easily one of the best collections of one persons comics in the past decade… and even with that said, Marc has managed to blow me away the past few years with his fine art as well. I like that.

See all images tagged with Marc Bell in The Forest Archives.

Welcome to The Forest Archives, a comprehensive collection of my books, zines (pictured), artwork & ephemera. At the beginning of this year I decided to scan everything I owned, mostly for the purposes of dusting things off and actually taking a look (the curse of having a lot of stuff is not ever looking at it all). Once I started organizing and tagging everything into a new Flickr account, I got really into seeing the connections between everything, whether it be through author, artist, publisher, etc. From there, there was no turning back. I need to update with everything I’ve acquired in the past several months, as well as begin scanning and photographing artwork, hundreds of postcards, and more. I also plan on sharing a more detailed look at my favorites, looking into the connections between things, and whatever else may come to mind. I hope to do this about once a week, and I hope you’ll take a look!