Inheritance cover, book now available

I’m really pleased to share that Iris Jamahl Dunkle’s poetry collection Inheritance, which I designed the cover for, is now available for pre-order through Finishing Line Press. Now is the best time to order copies, since pre-orders will determine the size of the press run.

Having read poems from the collection years ago, it was a pleasant surprise to find that I would be creating a cover illustration for a familiar text. Reading these beautiful, honest poems feels so immediate that it’s almost like listening to a good friend – a friend who is a skilled poet, that is.

Iris was really open-minded and encouraged me to take my own approach to a cover illustration that would convey the spirit of the collection. Starting with Iris’ request for a black and white cover image of the musicians of Bremen town, I suggested adding secondary images from the poems, and using a silhouette style.

Link for online orders: http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm

-----------------

Iris’ announcement and mail order form

Just wanted to let you all know that my poetry collection Inheritance, will be published by Finishing Line Press on June 25, 2010. This is a limited edition collection, and pre-publication sales will determine the press run, so please reserve your copy by April 30^th. Please take a moment to pre-order a copy and feel free to pass along information about the book. If you’ve already ordered Inheritance, my sincere thanks.

You can purchase the book online at www.finishinglinepress.com by clicking on "2009/10 New Releases" and scrolling down to my book. Or, if you prefer to order by mail, please use the order form below. Copies are $12 each and shipping is only $1.


“In Inheritance, Iris Jamahl Dunkle wipes the tarnish off an old family mirror, focuses her light onto it and back out onto the mythic labyrinths of a pastoral childhood, onto the harrowing city, and onto the straw-gold strands that bind the speaker and a distant beloved. A mother hums “the song of the sink,” the speaker packages the city into a “box, oil-stained and almost translucent,” and looks ahead to bones with “swollen rings (as) in trees”. Many of them sonnets, these small intense poems race past each other like cloud-spots, sun-spots on a wind-eager day, toward the beloved and an intertwined human destiny.” 


– Phyllis Meshulam

Sonoma County Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools.


“With shining images and language, Iris Dunkle explores childhood’s maze to find the self at the center, only to lose that center, as we must, to love… These poems celebrate two of the greatest tools we have for fixing the unfixable, love and language.”

– Gwynn O’Gara

Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, California 2010-2011

Thank you!

Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Please mail all orders to the Finishing Line Press address below or order online at www.finishinglinepress.com (click on “2009/10 New Releases”).

Please send me ______ copy(ies) of Inheritance, by Iris Jamahl Dunkle, at $12.00 per copy.

Enclosed is my check (payable to Finishing Line Press) for $__________

Name

Address

City/State/Zip

Please send check or money order to:

Finishing Line Press

Post Office Box 1626

Georgetown, KY 40324

Happy Holidays 2009

Here’s a look at my 2009 holiday card. This year I played with some of the classic 1951 lyrics to “Sleigh Ride” by lyricist Mitchell Parrish.

I send a holiday card to nearly all my friends, immediate family, and clients, so I have set myself a goal that each year’s card illustration should not focus only on Christmas but should include elements of the season that everyone can relate to.

I felt confident this year turning to the lyrics of Jewish immigrant Parrish, with his cheery rhymes about old-fashioned wintertime fun. A couple of my favorite parts are the sweet image of togetherness in, “There’s a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy -- when they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie” followed closely by the gentle reminder that “These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives,” and of course the most amusing line to sing out loud, “We’ll be singing the songs we love to sing without a single stop -- by the fireside while we watch the chestnuts pop -- pop, pop, pop!”

BLACK FINGERS!

I’ve been working for the last six weeks on a Web-based art piece for the Halloween countdown calendar Gothtober.com. The calendar releases a new art piece by a different artist for every day of October, and mine will open tomorrow, October 21. I’m very grateful to the creator of Gothtober, Julianna Parr, and to all the Gothtober staff, for giving me an invaluable opportunity to experiment and push my work to a new level, and to share it with a wider audience.

My piece, titled “Black Waters,” tells a touching -- yet creepy! -- story of a monster’s love for a beautiful blonde backpacker. In this piece, I’ve used still and animated charcoal drawings along with voice acting and sound effects to create a sort of hybrid of graphic novel and movie.

I created this piece to go with Gothtober’s theme for 2009, “Drive-In Movie.” I took inspiration from the basic idea and monster image for the 1954 film, “The Creature from the Black Lagoon,” to come up with my own aquatic monster story. “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” is such a part of American movie culture that although I’d never actually seen the film, I’ve always been amused by the image of the monster and the general idea of the story.

In fact, I had already written the first draft of the script for my own piece before I watched the original “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” film for the first time. I was surprised by how similar some elements in my story were to the original storyline and film. In particular, I was intrigued to find that while I had spontaneously decided to set my story in a Florida lagoon that (naturally!) adjoins a cave, in the original “Creature” film, which is set in Brazil, the underwater sequences were actually filmed on location in Florida (!) in a lagoon that leads to, guess what: one of the largest underwater caves in the United States.

The piece incorporates over twenty-five individual charcoal drawings, so designing and executing these illustrations was a large part of this project. On a good day, I would produce five or six drawings, and had the charcoal-coated fingers to prove it. There were some moments when, while deciding whether to use a 2B Conte crayon or a 6B charcoal pencil for a certain shadow, I felt like I was back in art school, stroking and blending my way through a figure drawing – except that I didn’t have a nude monster posing on a platform in front of me. By the way, some of my favorite drawings from this piece are the ones featuring armadillos... I had to do a bit of research in order to depict them properly, and I discovered that armadillos are quite cute!

Working with actors (recruited from among my friends) and sound has been a delightful part of this project, and I’m truly grateful for how generous Dia, Bobby, and Canyon were with their time and creativity. I gave them free rein to portray the characters however they wanted and I was really tickled by the results. It’s just incredibly fun to hear how each person plays his or her part, and to combine the sounds to create the illusion of events unfolding. I only wish I had a photo of Dia and me in front of the mic, Dia screaming and lowering her face into a bowl of water while I grabbed her leg, pretending to be the creature... ah, the things one does for art! In fact, I'm especially grateful to Dia, not only for playing the part of "Marissa," but also for recording me and putting the perfect effects on my voice to create the voice of the creature.

Please take a look at the piece, and let me know what you think. I’m really pleased and excited to share it with you. And don’t worry – the piece opens October 21, but you can go back and view it again later too.

To view it, go to www.gothtober.com and click on the square that says “21” (that’s 21, not 31).

Elsi's home on the Web... plus, a new Cafe Press URL

I’m pleased to announce the new Elsi Tervo web page: http://www.elsitervo.com. Though I took my share of web design classes during the dot com heydays, this is actually the first page that I’ve taken all the way through to posting on the web myself, so creating it was a pretty gratifying experience.

The page links to my Cafe Press shop, and also to my music-themed shirts offered on e-Bay by the legendary Pixelbiscuit Records.

Since the site address is much shorter than the Cafe Press address, it should be easier to pass along to friends, or go back to later for more t-shirt fun.

Also, anyone who has bookmarked the Cafe Press shop directly should take note that the address of the Cafe Press shop itself has changed. The new address is http://www.cafepress.com/elsitervo. The old address had an underscore in it (“elsi_tervo”), which I removed to make it a little simpler.

A Marriage Equality Design for Everyone

I've just enhanced my Cafe Press shop with another marriage equality themed design. The last one I created was specific to California in response to Proposition 8, but this one is for everyone, everywhere! It's clean, it's simple, it's classy... go check it out! 

http://www.cafepress.com/elsitervo

Snacks... rabbits... what more could you want?

I created this pattern for the back of my business card.

Christmas! In April!

Now that I've decide to embrace my blog after several years of denying its very existence, you have to allow me some retrospective posts.

This is a small sample from my holiday card for 2008. I really enjoy creating these cards, since I give myself total freedom to draw anything I want. This card in particular looks a bit like a doodle page, with random holiday-related ideas spontaneously drawn anywhere they'll fit.

Work included in Gothtober.com 2008

In October 2008, I had an animated piece included in the fabulous online Halloween countdown calendar, Gothtober.com! 

Gothtober, a brainchild of artist and illustrator Julianna Parr, counts down the days of October to Halloween by marking each day with an original piece of online art created by a different artist. It's quite fun to go to the site each day in October and find out what's hiding behind that day's virtual door.

My piece opened on Day 21 (and yes, you can still see it now that Day 21 has passed). It's a recording (of yours truly!) singing a traditional Latin American folk song, accompanied by animated versions of my original gouache illustrations. This was my first time animating, so I have an itch to create a second, even better version, but I'm still excited to share Version 1 with you.

Take a look! Go to www.gothtober.com and click on "21" (low on the page, just to the right of the skeleton mariachi trio).

Marriage Equality T-shirt on Cafe Press

These are a couple of snapshots from my Marriage Equality t-shirt. I designed it for all those who believe it's a basic human right to legally marry the person you love and want to build a life with. 

The shirts come in unisex and women's styles, and there's a blue and white version of the design (no color fills) for the more understated wearer. 

Shirts are available now on Cafe Press. Click here to go to my shop:

http://www.cafepress.com/Elsi_Tervo

Entered "Communication Arts" 2009 Illustration Contest

I entered the Communication Arts 2009 illustration contest this week. Winners have their work featured in the bi-monthly magazine's 2009 Illustration Issue (July/August). The image above is a sample from the illustration I entered, a scene from an imagined production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."