Anders Nilsen's Blog, page 31

The Marine Invertebrate Room

My fourth day in England I drove back to London from Leeds, arriving with enough time to get to the Natural History Museum for about an hour before it closed. There was a bunch of cool stuff I'd like to have sat down and drawn for a while, but wasn't in the mood, somehow. I ended up spending most of my visit in the Marine Invertebrate room, which was the emptiest room in the museum, it seemed. Me and a bunch of lonesome, weirdly beautiful shellfish and coral, regarding one another sympathetically across the centuries from behind glass.


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This is a kind of lobster:
And this a squid:

Below is Number 45:
[image error] And Number 57 and 58:
These are Sea Cucumbers. Apparently when Sea Cucumbers feel threatened they spit out their guts and "breathing apparatus" at their perceived predator, coating it in sticky slime. They can then grow a new one. Which seems a small comfort somehow.

Lastly we have a Coelecanth. It's a bit out of place in this list, given its having a spine, but I thought it had a nice, sympathetic color. Apparently the people who know about these things thought the Coelecanth had been extinct for millions of years. Then they found some swimming about happily in the 40's. It's never too late.
After that I went for a walk in Hyde Park, which was very nice, but I didn't take any pictures

So here are the last pictures post Pierre Feuille Ciseaux...

So here are the last pictures post Pierre Feuille Ciseaux. The first few are of June and Charlotte's apartment in Besançon.
[image error] We got in late after a signing in Poligny and a few slight misadventures. The spread below is Chinese food from up the block. And the two cats above (both top and bottom) are Hercule (top) and...crap, I forgot the kittens name below. He was hilarious, though. Kept trying to follow Hercule up the shelf, but ended up each time collapsing down to the floor, dragging books and wires and various items down with him in a cascade. Look for him again in the next picture.

Below are Charlotte and the amazing Gilles.
And the back of Zak's head.
[image error] Below, the parting of our little quartet. Zak, June and I left Sarah in Paris and got on the train to Brussels.
The signing in Brussels was a miniature reunion of the residency. Here are Zak and Bert bonding over their choices of apparel.
 The Buddha drinking espresso and talking on his cell. And a reminder about Buddha nature. Thank you Buddha. I'm trying. Quit calling me. At Poligny I did a drawing of Gilles. He moved before I got to his other lens.
[image error] A drawing from my sketchbook, partly inspired by a drawing on June's wall.
And another drawing I did mostly during the signing at Dole. The text was already in there from weeks before, in Chicago.

Tonight I'm going to be talking with Tom Gauld and Paul G...

Tonight I'm going to be talking with Tom Gauld and Paul Gravette at Orbital in London.


























In the days after that I have three more signing and reading dates – at Travelling Man stores in Manchester, York and Newcastle. And then home sweet home.

PFC part 2

One of the buildings housed PFC's three exhibitions: one featuring the work of Polina Petrouchina (and her mom, who did the sewing), one of my work and one of the results of the week of collaborative exercises from PFC last year, and (eventually), this year.




The exhibition of my work was, I think, the first time work from all my different books and all my various styles was squeezed into a single space together. I gave a gallery talk on Sunday, assisted by June for interpreting in French, and it was an interesting challenge to try to make it sound like it all made perfect sense.

The magical awesomeness of Pierre Feuille Ciseaux is a little difficult to express. But one big part of it was the support staff which included a team of screen printers and a second team of woodcut/lino printers who basically didn't sleep the whole week while this gaggle of 20 enthusiastic, spoiled artists banged out images for them to print. Below is Nono indulging my extremely tightly registered two-color printing job.

The screens.

The first color.
And the finished print. To get the red to really pop it was necessary to underprint it entirely with white. Even all those spindly little lines. Nono was probably ready to strangle me. by the end. He did an amazing job.
The main task of the screen printing/book-making team was to produce the book below. Almost everyone collaborated, starting on the first day, in doing a three color print based on one of the twelve labors of Hercules. Below is the cover, following are several spreads from the book.



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Below, on the right, is the image I produced with Anton Kannemeyer. I drew Cerberus, he drew Hercules (I should mention that I was kind of inspired by the subject, my own print, discussed above is on the same subject – all 12 labors).
Finally, a few more shots of the grounds.

And the awesome doorknobs.
And the workroom, rendered deeply meloncholy by the absence of frenzied creation.

Today Pierre Feuille Ciseaux ends and gets dissassembled,...

Today Pierre Feuille Ciseaux ends and gets dissassembled, Yesterday and this morning have been a series of whistful goodbyes as each of the 22 artists shuffles off by train or car. And so I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from the week. It was truly amazing. Below are a number of shots of the grounds. The Saline (old world salt factory) where it took place is a group of buildings arranged in a half circle around a huge courtyard the size of a couple of city blocks.


Each of the buildings featured this carved stone detail...a representation of salt crystals forming in the underground caves.


Apparently the outlook at the top of this building was where the site manager positioned himself to keep an eye on the workers below.
This building housed the work room, where we spent most of our days [image error]
The center of the compound was just an open field of grass, but behind the buildings, just inside the walled perimeter were a network of elaborate gardens. The pond outside my window was full of ducks most mornings.
The workroom. Several days stretched from, say 11am (I was a late riser) to one, two or three a.m. The time, ideas and impromptu projects flew.
South African painter and cartoonist Anton Kannemeyer ("Joe Dog")
Finn Matti Hagelsberg, discovering the woodcut. And and knocking it out of the park.
Zak Sally drawing a page for the last minute PFC zine.
Zak again, playing a short set for everyone Wednesday evening on a trip to the nearby city of Besançon.
Dinner in Besançon at Seize OGS. Tony Papin is on the Left. Zak, Anton, Matti and Sarah Glidden follow. The first course was edamame with sea salt and green tea. Much more to follow, including screenprinting, crowdsurfing, and several photos taken in a dimmly lit bar by someone who was slightly inebriated.

Over the Ocean

This last page I drew while watching musicians play in Besançon, Wednesday night.

The Interview Show

I'm in France at the moment at Pierre Feuille Ciseaux about which I'll have much to post soon. I also did a strip in my sketchbook about a conversation I had on the plane on the way here, but it needed some correction, so while the white out is drying there is this: I was on Mark Bazer's Interview Show at the Hideout a couple of months back (I posted a drawing I did of fellow guest Cameron Esposito's ear while I was there, back in September). Video of the event just came up at WBEZ. 

Somehow I missed the Liberty Bell

The night at Brickbat in Philadelphia was the night the Famous Canadian Cartoonist Flu of 2011 really took hold and I started feeling miserable. We stayed with the incredibly gracious Matt Leines and he outfitted me with the building's penthouse which had a private bathroom that was actually bigger than my bedroom at home. It was awesome. Below are a few pictures from the house, and in particular a bunch of Matt's art collection, which was amazing. Stuff by Chris Johanson, Barry McGee, R. Kikuo Johnson, Brian Chippendale, Marc and a bunch of others. The giant triangle is Matt's





This is another of Matt's:

The piece below was one of the coolest things on the walls. A small found object model of a telephone pole in a box frame.



A whole mess of tigers:
Lastly, here are a couple of photos from the event at Desert Island in Brooklyn. Huge thanks to Gabe for making it great.

Tonight: Montreal

Just checked in to a hotel in Montreal after a couple of nights in the place of my birth in northern New Hampshire, and a really great talk yesterday at CCS in Vermont. I had a chance to embarrass one of my favorite cartoonists ever, Jason Lutes, by discussing his great influence on me while he sat in the audience.

Below are a couple of drawings I did while sitting in the audience at one of the panels at the Brooklyn Book Festival last Sunday.



So: tonight I'm at the D&Q store in Montreal. On Saturday and Sunday I'll be in Toronto at the Beguiling and the Word on the Street Festival. And then blessed blessed home.

Dispatches from the road and air

I've been on the road on the second leg of the tour for a week and a half now, but have been too busy to post much. Here are some (pre)tour stories from my sketchbook:





So far I've been in Baltimore, Bethesda (at SPX), Pittsburgh, Philly, and, for the last four days, New York City. More about all the above to follow. Aside from a case of the famous Canadian cartoonist flu pandemic of 2011, it's been completely awesome. Being on the road with Marc Bell rules. That guy's awesome. Tonight I'll be in Providence at Ada Books. Below are a couple of photos from Pittsburgh. Bill at Copacetic put up a back issue wall for me to sign next to. It's all comics about birds. Awesome. Below that is a shot of people waiting for Marc and I to start.



Just to let people know...the Hardcover of the book has been a bit scarce and will be for another week or three. That said, both Copacetic and Brickbat managed to secure more than the usual allotment of copies (sworn to secrecy regarding their methods) so if you can't find one, you might contact them. Lastly, Gabriel at Desert Island in Brooklyn printed up this awesome little newsprint zine collecting a number of outtakes, thumbnails and other unpublished paraphernalia related to Big Questions. Along with the trading cards it's something of a tour exclusive for the moment. Below is the cover.