ecosystems

Roaming around Barnes and Noble the other day, I came across "Charley Harper: an Illustrated Life," and was instantly smitten. I have always loved Charley Harper (and always believed I would have done better in science class had he illustrated my biology text book) and I do believe that this was the most beautiful coffee table book I have ever seen. And how playful! Children and adults alike might enjoy it! 

I do love  buffalo and other plains critters. 

These collages are some of my favorite images in the book: all these bugs and lizards and platypus swarm together so harmoniously. 

Alas, this book was out of my price-range, so I had to content myself with only a brief look. Charley has something quite interesting to say about art and ecosystems: 

"I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe."

Indeed! 

the internet!

The book cover archive is now equipped with a randomize button, allowing me to sit at my computer browsing books from all far and sundry corners of the archive. Hoorah!

It is, as the man himself says, glorious.

crime

This is my favorite book cover, perhaps because it reminds me of a cop show from the sixties or something, not that I am any authority on cop shows. The font is perfect, the white is perfect, and that sucker is perfect. I also like the tiny type-writer lines.

Darren Haggar 

And I am now the proud owner of a copy! I think I will just leave it on my desk and look at it a couple times a day.