“Story Meets Image” presents a selection of hybrid works that investigate alternative ways (from, say, the short story, play, or novel) to tell stories, mixing illustration, words, and animation, and featuring intelligent mice, gargoyles that have grown tired of hanging around all day, and awkward beings in crisis.
Gargoyle Nocturne … or Nightmare
Medium
Animated short on 16 mm negative film; illustrations drawn with 2B graphite pencil on paper
Year
1992
An expression of that ancient and persistent dream: to be unbound, to fly! And a reminder—for man, woman, and monster—of the enduring dangers of so dreaming. (If on a phone, please turn to horizontal/landscape format to see imagery in full.)
AD 2020: Genetically Engineered Mice Grow Ever Smarter!
In September of 1999, smart mice were created by a group of researchers led by Dr. Joe Z. Tsien, a neurobiologist at Princeton University, whose work was reported in the journal Nature. Newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, took note. Mice intelligence was amplified through the manipulation of genes and led many to wonder, including this artist, to where it might all lead. AD 2020: Genetically Engineered Mice Grow Ever Smarter is the expression of a vision of one possible outcome in the form of an aphoristic comic strip. Fortunately, 2020 has come and gone without our seeing such a terror. Of course, there are those who would argue that among our friends in the animal kingdom are some, particularly mice (and dolphins!), who might be already much smarter than we give them credit to be, as Douglas Adams proclaims in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
“These creatures you call mice, you see, they are not quite as they appear. They are merely the protrusion into our dimension of vastly hyperintelligent pandimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese and the squeaking is just a front.”
Medium
Conte Crayon, Oil Pastel, and Pen and Ink
Year
1999
Komobula
Illustrations and story for picture book.
Medium
Watercolor and pencil on Arches Cold Pressed 140 Lb. Watercolor Paper
Year
Work in progress.
Komobula looked a bit like a cat .... A bit like a dog ... A bit like a snake ... And a bit like a frog ... He had feathers ... And toenails—one pointy tooth, too ... He had big ears ... A small nose .... And a tongue that was blue …
Komobula looked a bit like a cat .... A bit like a dog ... A bit like a snake ... And a bit like a frog ... He had feathers ... And toenails—one pointy tooth, too ... He had big ears ... A small nose .... And a tongue that was blue …
Komobula had a good friend with whom he'd run. They'd climb up a tree and swing down for fun.
They'd dive in the river and swim in the stream. Then, to dry off, sit in a sunbeam.
"Where are you, friend?" he wondered aloud. "Why have you left me beneath this dark cloud?"
But Kombula's friend, he soon had to go. Komobula called out, but he was too slow. He yelled to his friend, "But why can't you stay?" His friend did not answer, he was too far away.
He looked in the forest. He looked on the mountain. He got on his knees and looked into a fountain.
He climbed up a tower and looked all around.
"Am I so ugly, is it my face? Why else would he go? From what else would he race?"
But then the sky cleared and he thought in his head, "Go out, run, do something instead!" ... "Go be a cat, and whisper meow! Go be a dog, and growl for chow! Go be a snake and hiss at the air! Go be a frog and gulp and stare!" ... He barked and growled, then chased a car. He paused, full stop, then ran again ran. Caught a postal officer and licked the man.
Then by the pond, he hopped right in. For him, a frog, this was no sin. He blew out his cheeks, slipped out his tongue. Caught a bee--was promptly stung!