somebody is going to pay the bill…

by David Halliday

Pedro Nekoi

One thing that you can be sure of with commercial art is that it will be accomplished. The next thing you’ll notice is that it offends no one. Its like a tossed salad. All green and reds and yellows. Nothing brown.

Frank Kelly Freas

The artists that populate the world of pulp fiction and comics must be surprised by their elevation as artists. I say ‘must’ because I’m sure when they began, no one thought of their work as art, only as skilled tradesmen and honest unpretentious workmen.

Born in Hornell, New York, Freas (pronounced like “freeze”) was the son of two photographers, and was raised in Canada.^[4] He was educated at Lafayette High School in Buffalo, where he received training from long-time art teacher Elizabeth Weiffenbach. He entered the United States Army Air Forces right out of high school (Crystal Beach, Ontario, Canada). He flew as camera man for reconnaissance in the South Pacific and painted bomber noses during World War II. He then worked for Curtis-Wright for a brief period, then went to study at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh and began to work in advertising. He married Pauline (Polly) Bussard in 1952; they had two children, Jacqui and Jerry. Polly died of cancer in January 1987. In 1988 he married (and is survived by) Dr. Laura Brodian.

 

Travis Bedel

The union of humans and plants. This mixture that is usually saved for the graveyard. Bedel’s collages and paintings are filled with detail and wonder. They do in some sense remind me the great Howard Hawk’s film, “The Thing From Another World”. As I have long maintained, carrots too have feelings.

Cameron Gray

Its like looking at the art from another species. Cameron Gray. Some of his images are iconic. Some cliche. But all of them are wondrous. And joyful. Even the dark visions.

she used to love a tall skinny man

by David Halliday