We went to a really interesting lecture last night. It was by an artist, Judy Glantzman, who does these amazing canvases that have a wonderful cumulative effect. They seem really organic, but her process is to essentially paint over the same canvas over and over again, adding or subtracting elements until they’re really layered and complex. I would have loved to have seen some of the canvases themselves, just to get a closer look at the depth and texture they must have. It was really interesting to hear her talk about how her canvases come together, because they ultimately seem to have just sort of happened.
During the question and answer session, most of the questions were couched in comparisons to other artists, and they were all respectful and complimentary, but it was still kind of uncomfortable. It’s not like anyone was saying, “Did you mean to lift that technique from so-and-so, but not as well?” And the artist made a very sincere showing of being flattered by the comparisons, but it still made me decide to resist equating illustrators’ styles when I’m writing about comics, even if I mean it in a positive way.
At the reception afterwards, I was talking to a professor from another college, and his specialization is French cultural history. His spouse is an art instructor, so I asked if he’d ever read any bandes dessinées, since it seemed like a reasonable intersection between their scholarly interests. He wasn’t familiar with the category, so I started telling him about Joann Sfar and The Ticking and Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators and other stuff, which was horribly Team Comix of me. It was the cheap red wine, I swear.