Next month I’ll be in Providence, Rhode Island, where I’m the Artist Guest of Honour for NecronomiCon Providence 2015. This is an honour for me in more ways than one: the city of Providence, or its representation in the spectral prose of HP Lovecraft, has occupied a fair amount of my creative life, especially in the comic-strip adaptations I was drawing in the 1980s. I just hope the citizens of Providence can forgive the liberties I took with the city’s architecture in The Haunter of the Dark where the buildings owe far more to the architecture of Scotland than they do to New England.
A nameless entity from Lovecraft’s Monsters (2014).
The main event where I’m concerned will be the Ars Necronomica art show at the Providence Art Club on Thomas Street. This is a few doors away from the beautiful Fleur-De-Lys Studios, a building that Lovecraft mentions in The Call of Cthulhu, and which (having done some research this time) filled a panel in my adaptation. In the story the building is the home of eccentric artist Henry Wilcox so it’s a dizzying prospect to find my own art being exhibited a few doors away. Among my works there will be print enlargements of some of the illustrations from last year’s Lovecraft’s Monsters, Ellen Datlow’s expertly edited collection of recent Lovecraftiana; and the piece I created in 2007 for the Exhibition of Unspeakable Things at Maison d’Ailleurs, Switzerland, has been refashioned especially for this show. My work isn’t the only art on display, there’ll be contributions from 50 other artists which I think must make the event one of the largest Lovecraftian art shows staged anywhere. The show opens on August 11th but the official opening will be on the 20th which happens to be Lovecraft’s 125th birthday. Big thanks to Joe Shea, Niels Hobbs et al for arranging everything.
The convention begins on the 21st, and rather than attempt to summarise the astonishing range of events it’s easier to provide links to the main schedule and the additional programming. For anyone interested in attending, there are still day passes available, while many of the additional events are open to the public. Oh, and I’ve also designed the cover for the convention booklet so attendees will be able to get their copy defaced by my signature. (I’m probably making work for myself here, aren’t I?) And I’ve just noticed that there’s a preview of the booklet cover on the convention Facebook page.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Lovecraft archive
Aw dammit the stars aren’t right. I’ll be in Atlanta at that same time. Is there any chance that booklet cover will find its destiny as an obtainable poster avec ou sans graphics?
Have a great time. Looks like a lot of fun.
Stephen: IF (big) there are any left after the convention there may be a copy of The Program Book available at the newly opened Lovecraft Arts & Sciences storefront in The Providence Arcade. No promises tho. But we promise you hospitality whenever you can grace us with your presence in The Divine City.
John: The honour (Spelled properly!) is all ours! So many of the artists want to meet you with their thanks. Niels & Carmen are owed much gratis as well by all of us for reanimating the convention again–all this (those crazy, lovely people!) while establishing that historic centre in The Arcade–a permanent year-round tourist bureau for The Eldritch. Dunno who that “Joe Shea” is tho’. Well, all names are fictions… ;)
Stephen: The art may well appear somewhere in future, maybe another calendar design. I’ve done enough Lovecraftian work in recent years to fill the back of a new edition of my Haunter of the Dark collection if/when such a thing happens. The Lord Horror drawings no longer need to be there now they’re in a book of their own. The convention cover art would certainly be included.
The joey Zone: Arcades as well… I like arcades a great deal. See, you have the best city!
Here in the South Pacific we are laconic and prone to understatement, so it is all “When the Stars are OK, near enough”.
I can’t think of anyone else more suitable for a NecronomiCon GoH.