Jazz

Hey all! I thought we should have a thread for Perceval Press and of course, their books and the readings they offer.

Currently, there is some thing on their website and I hope that everyone will support it.

Please go to Perceval Press' Homepage and read about the campaign to
save America's wild horses. If you agree, please sign the
petition....

http://www.percevalpress.com/home.html

Jazz

I'm not sure if this book is being published by Perceval but Viggo will appeared in the Preface. He wrote it while he was in Toronto!

http://www.john-howe.com/news/more.php?id=103_0_1_0_M

Latest newsletter from John Howe
with the preface to his artbook by Viggo, which is
just a very beautiful preface, I enjoyed it a lot..

WORD FOR WORD
Or When Margin is Horizon by Another Name...



Never one to miss an opportunity to let someone else
write the newsletter... this time Viggo Mortensen is
doing it for me.
Following is the original preface from the new book,
reproduced with his permission.



In the Margins With John Howe:
A View From Observer and Subject
by Viggo Mortensen

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"Always lines, never forms. But where do they find
these lines in nature? For my part, I see only forms
that are lit up and forms that are not. There is only
line and shadow."


Francisco de Goya


"Time was(when I began drawing) that I used to think a
picturesque or beautiful tree was hardly to be met
with once a month; I cared for nothing but oaks a
thousand years old, split by lightning or shattered by
wind... Now there is not a twig in the closest-clipt
hedge that grows, that I cannot admire, and wonder at,
and take pleasure in, and learn from... this power of
enjoyment is worth working for, not merely for
enjoyment, but because it renders you less imperfect
as one of God's creatures..."


John Ruskin



"Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no
possibility of cheating: It is either good or bad."


Salvador Dal�_

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

Thanks to Peter Jackson adding me to the formidable
team he had assembled to make the movie trilogy from
J.R.R. Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS, I, like all the
other actors involved, was to have the rare honour of
witnessing this adaptation continually go from drawing
board to cinema screen. One of the key architects
entrusted with bringing Peter's vision to life and
giving audiences around the world the tangible,
detailed representation of "Middle Earth" we have in
these movies, was John Howe. He and Alan Lee, both
already famous for their achievements as illustrators
of many works of fiction and fantasy -- including and
perhaps especially Tolkien's writing -- worked as a
team, almost as one brain, to create many of the
blueprints for our location and studio sets, for the
story's characters and for all manner of artefacts
related to it. The unshakeable foundation of the movie
trilogy was always in the elaborate design of these
things by John, Alan and their collaborators in New
Zealand from the various departments under Jackson. No
matter how many side roads the script-writers took in
the months and years after cameras rolled and
story-telling began in earnest in October, 1999, what
had started with pencil and paper in John's and Alan's
hands would always serve as our ultimate visual guide
and inspiration.

When we started filming in Wellington, I knew about as
much about John Howe and his work as I did about
Tolkien's book -- which is to say practically nothing.
In the same way that I necessarily became an ardent
student of THE LORD OF THE RINGS and its sources, I,
like everyone else, gladly fell into the
fully-realised world imagined in John's sketches and
paintings. Each line from his pencil, however faint,
served as an indelible outline of the world we came to
inhabit. Although I would never pretend to have become
any sort of expert regarding his work or its place
among that of his artistic peers, it is certain that a
side of his imagination and draughtsmanship are now
very familiar -- a part of me, and I a part of it.

An inkling of the symbiotic phenomenon connecting us,
the places travelled by our characters, and John's
eye, came when I first saw some of his drawings in
progress. On an equal footing with a handful of
solitary moments spent in some of Aotearoa's more
unspoiled natural environments, are the memories of
glimpses I was privileged to have of John Howe's
work-space in the Art Department building at the Stone
Street Studios in Miramar. On the second floor of a
converted factory space was a modest office shared by
John and Alan, his partner in dreaming and drawing
Middle Earth. Although I was to take advantage of
going up to see what he and Alan had been cooking up
on several occasions during the long shoot, it was not
long after I'd arrived in Wellington and begun playing
'Aragorn', that I got my first and perhaps most
memorable look at John's work. One afternoon when most
of the cast and crew were on a lunch break, I went for
a walk. Hoping to see the conceptual art for the movie
and learn something about what Gondor and its people
would look like -- and how, among other things, they
would be visually related to the Elves -- I had been
directed to their office. After knocking on the door a
few times and getting no response, I entered the room
and found the artists were not there.



Although I immediately felt it was wrong to intrude
without permission, and ought to have left, the
initial impact of the relatively small room cluttered
with artwork in different stages of completion was so
strong that I simply stood on the spot, just inside
the opened door, and followed my amazed eyes for what
must have been a couple of minutes. I remember
realising I had been holding my breath, and exhaled as
I took another step toward their adjoining desks. Even
if I had not been someone already interested in
drawing and painting, I would have been awestruck at
the sheer quantity and diversity of the art work and
tools surrounding me and taking up practically every
inch of wall- and desk-space, not to mention a good
part of the floor. You couldn't really say it was a
mess in there, but it was impressively cluttered. In
the many drawn and painted scenes and detailed studies
taped to the walls and lying about could be seen some
of the few places we had already filmed in -- and
much, much more of what we would come to see and
intimately know in the years to come. Here was a
faithful, comprehensive, and delicately exact vision
of elements of the epic journey we had embarked on.
What was "not there" yet in partially-complete
drawings was as attractive to my imagination as the
finished renderings of Lorien, Weathertop, or the
Prancing Pony. Much in the same way that I was
beginning to experience a growing interest in the
less-obvious layers of literary and mythological
origins of Tolkien's inventions, I found I was
immediately drawn to the parts of John's sketches that
faded toward the edge of a page or abruptly
disappeared into the white paper. I felt invited; my
mind finished the drawing and went past it, imagining
what the rest of the picture might look like, what
could have come before and would come after it.

In looking at John's prodigious artistic output
outside the subject of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, I
continue to see how effective his conscious choices to
show less of, diffuse, or veil his imagery can be. As
much as one can see the excellence and precision of
his draughtsmanship in completed pieces like
"Billiards", "The Castle of Chillon", "Lancelot", or
the "Centaur" or "Rhinoceros" armour drawings - to
name but a few - it is often what he carefully leaves
out of other, less "finished" images that compels us
to meet him with our own imaginations. What is beside
or beyond, hinted at or entirely absent from any hard
line John has drawn in certain pictures always has the
power to stimulate or provoke the viewer in some way.
This effect can be had from not only sketches like
those for MYTHAGO WOOD, or more finely-worked drawings
like "The Golden Fool", "Unicorn", or "Waterfall" --
but also in margin-to-margin pictures like "Merlin".



[zoom]



In the "Merlin" image, which was created as potential
cover art for a book in French on the wizard that did
not end up being made, we see John's deft use of what
is "not there". The details that evoke the passing of
time, a certain frailty, and natural specifics of
changing season on a certain afternoon are suffused
with a pale and frosty light that interests us in what
might be beyond the ridge-line and in the mind of the
squinting old sage -- even as, or because, it prevents
us from seeing these things. The blend of precise
lines and less distinct areas is also put to good use
in the startling, blood red-accented "Sagittarius",
for example; there is an exactness and sure touch in
the depiction of what is least visible that perfectly
complements all hard edges. In all of these pieces we
sense a harmony of tangible forms and suggested light
sources, of what is readily, accurately observed and
what we can only envision. It affects us, moves us,
because we know it is all connected, all real - even
when it is impossible. John Howe has expressed the
nature of this better than I could:

"We refer to borders all the time. Tell a child he
doesn't need something, you are asking him to define
the border between his desires and needs. Growing up
means defining your own borders -- where you
stop and others begin... Other borders: pencils on
paper. Brushes and colour. All these things touching
and defining each other by contact. Defined by the
places we touch reality, outlining the places we touch
imagination."

In order to have at least a passable understanding of
what types of artists and artwork make up the world of
modern illustrators, I have looked at a lot of books,
calendars, magazines, posters, and other published
work. Nowhere and in no one have I seen such fine
balance of the specific and the ephemeral, of nature
observed and invented, of highly informed story
adaptation and wholly original flights of fancy --
except, perhaps, in the work of John's colleague, Alan
Lee. (Peter Jackson was certainly clever, and lucky,
to enlist the services of both these immensely
talented artists!) That is not to say that there are
not dozens, if not hundreds of gifted illustrators
with inspired eyes and hands; I just don't feel as
involved or inspired by what I've seen of their work
as I am by John's . Obviously, the fact that I had a
unique perspective of his art in progress while
working on Lord of the Rings affects my present
judgment. I got to know John's work fairly well. I
lived in it, and, in some cases, was a subject for it.
I do feel enough time has passed, however, and enough
new imagery by others has come into view, that my
continued affinity for John's work, though perhaps not
entirely objective, will remain undiminished.

For probably another ten or fifteen minutes, I quietly
wandered around looking at his drawings and paintings.
Had I been someone with any significant knowledge of
modern illustrators, or, I suppose, of Tolkien's body
of work and fiercely loyal fan-base, I probably would
have been having a minor heart attack from being alone
with all of those unique original images. Probably I
would have felt compelled to at least steal one of his
pencils or sit in his chair, if not roll up a couple
of sketches and make a run for it. Even in my virginal
state of relative geeklessness, however, I was amazed
at the sheer volume and fine detail of the work in the
room. I remember being conscious of it being a special
moment, and have retained a memory of the smell of the
paper, ink, graphite in that room, that day. Even if I
had known what I now know about John and about
Tolkien, however, it may well be that I would have
resisted taking anything. Just as I am interested in
old churches, temples, mosques, ceremonial grounds,
and other places of worship without having to steal
from or possess any part of them, I may have been able
to walk away from John's office empty-handed anyway. I
certainly don't regret not taking anything. What I saw
and learned on my own during that lunch break, and
what John continued to show me and others through his
work, will always be with me. Any time I see part of
the movie trilogy or any connected image, I'll always
see John's hand in it. More than that, though, I am
now but one more in the legion of admirers who will
continue to eagerly anticipate each unique new image
made by John Howe.

As I was making my way out of the front door of the
Art Department building after leaving John's office
and quietly -- guiltily --walking down the stairs from
the second floor, someone -- I think it was Chris
Hennah -- asked me if I was looking for someone. I
felt like I'd been caught red-handed, that she could
see all of those drawings in my eyes. I mumbled
something or other about just being out for a walk,
and made my way over to the lunch room to see what i
could scavenge in the way of left-overs.


Viggo Mortensen
Toronto, October 2004

HappySquared

oh I love Perceval Press. They're the coolest online store I've ever had transactions with. They deliver on time and sometimes ahead of time. And you get your parcel quicker if you order something on Viggo's bday.

Jazz

Are you pulling my leg? They deliver faster if it's on Viggo's birthday? That's flipping hysterical.

Oh, they are by far, the best online store I ever dealt with. The books are always delivered super fast.

Suga*Babe

On Viggo's birthday? Really?

HappySquared

coz the first time we ordered it took like 4 weeks for us to get it. Then we ordered Oct 20 and it took a week! therefore, I conclude that they deliver faster if it's Viggo's bday! hahahahaha! try it next year...

Jazz

That's hysterical! it's weird, but they have always been really fast for me. I am always really shocked at how quickly they deliver especially since I'm out of the country!

HappySquared

well, you live in Canada and you're close. But yeah, they are fast. I live like miles away and they are, so far, the fastest among all the transactions I did online.

Jazz

Well, I once sent a money order for "The Horse is Good" and expected that it would take forever to get there and forever toget to me. I was shocked when it came only a few weeks later. Usually, not like that with any company.

HappySquared

awww... I wish I can send money orders so I won't be using my credit card with a sky-rocketing bill! My next orders will be his CDs.

Jazz

Ooo..I got one of his CDs already. And I have one at the back of Recent Forgies as well.

HappySquared

I have to find this thread to post our recent collection. I've been taking a lot of pictures lately.

Jazz

Where did you get the signature and shirt? I love the shirt!!!

HappySquared

I bought the shirt at the website. I ordered it with 45301 book.
Oh, and the sign was a gift from my sister's Danish friend. She met Viggo at the ROTK premier in Denmark and asked for an autograph. It's in Danish, it says: To Ryll, love Viggo. He thought Ryll is Danish.

Me wearing the tee.

Jazz

Very nice. I haven't visited the place in awhile since i'm kind of broke, can't afford any books at this time.