There was a time during my early career as an art-guy that the ‘Spectrum : The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art’ series of books played a fundamental role in sculpting what I’d later pursue artistically. Annually, Spectrum would appear on the shelf at Barnes and Noble (and later, in the pages of the Sci-Fi Book Club newsletter), and I’d hungrily devour every page. Every dragon, every busty warrior-elf-woman clad in something completely inutile, every monster and every cyborg would be internalized by me as I’d think ‘I want to do this!’, or at least something similar. I was immersed in Dungeons and Dragons and ‘Hour of the Octopus’ by Joel Rosenberg at the time – what did I know? Dragons were everything and I could still tolerate Renaissance Faires. Which I went to. In costume.

Spectrum is, and has been for 14 years, nothing short of a perfect survey of mainstream mystical, technological or surreal fantasy narrative images that had happened within the past year or so. As a new illustrator interested in keeping up with the latest ‘lowbrow’ and fantasy trends, I kept abreast. And with Spectrum, ‘abreast’ could always be taken a bit literally. For the uninitiated, you can tell the ‘fantasy’ art from everything else by one factor : D-cups. There’s no need to every confuse the art movements again if you keep that one element in mind.

Of all of the annual art surveys, Spectrum was always the most handsomely put-together, and in a style that’s remained consistent between every volume I own. Everything is large, bright images – only a few on each page – with easy to read information on how to track down more info on the artists involved, and an index.

I’ve had a love / hate relationship with the Spectrum series since I’ve been reading and collecting it, and this is mostly because I’m am art purist. Regardless, I’ve always had ‘love’ to continue to collect the Spectrum volumes every year. My relationship it was personal, even if the Spectrum folks had no idea who I was. At least two girlfriends endured my vociferous ranting and praising as I flipped through each page in that year’s volume, picking every image to shreds.

As Photoshop became a tool in the arsenal of the fantasy artists, I wanted to take part in the digital age too. I convinced my high school to get a computer and a copy of Photoshop for the art studio space because I wanted to be Dave McKean at any cost. What could be better than art that didn’t require any messy paints, brushes, or space?

After another year or so in the evolution of the fantasy art world, Spectrum inadvertently made it clear that Photoshop was becoming TOO dominant a tool for their artists, who were so fascinated with it that they slapped something digital, and genuinely distracting, into every other image. I was disillusioned and disappointed and thought I’d put down Spectrum forever – or at least the nefarious computer. How could a panel of professional judges accept such mediocre art into these beautiful pages? In retrospect, after watching as the book and the art scene had both evolved together, those few years of overpowering digital ‘art’ WERE a perfect representation of what was going on, take it or leave it. It had turned be back to my pencils and paints anyhow, which was a personal move that was empowering. Thanks, Spectrum.

Still, I rebelled and sent in completely out-there paintings of my own, none of which were exceptional in skill or subject matter. I just wanted to show the judges that I was at LEAST better than that shoddy computer Korn fan-art that I had to look at last year and still hadn’t forgiven them for. I never made it into the pages of Spectrum, but that was never really the point. I was just an angry teen artist, and who did that guy personally know to get a full page in an otherwise acceptable book?

Spectrum 14 has cleaned up its act – or rather, quietly observed the fantasy art world cleaning up its act and followed suit. I can look through the pages and see that digital artwork has finally reached a point where it doesn’t make me recoil in horror, and that most artists have gotten over their fascination with the computer and refocused upon the artistry of art, instead of the technology of it. Sure, there’s still way too many digital artworks for my personal taste, but they appear next to things listed as ‘oil on wood’ and ‘acrylics’ – and the organic, real stuff always wins for me. Still, Spectrum represents the fantasy art world as it stands today, as it always has. Even the collection of painters who mercilessly rip off Phil Hale’s amazing style. Those guys’ll find their own voices eventually – but do they really deserve a whole page just because they can copy someone else’s painting style and subject matter expertly?

Pop surrealism is slowly creeping into the pages, alongside the usual childrens’ book illustrations and fantasy stuff. It’s great to see more of James Jean’s work, and the annual nods to Kent Williams, Brom, and Dave McKean, all of whom I love. It was the prevalence of the aforementioned D-cups in Spectrum that drove me away from personally continuing to pursue fantasy art and turned me towards the world of pop surrealism, which I related much better to as this past decade progressed. It’s all interrelated, and it’s come full-circle, and I’m home once again in the pages of Spectrum 14.

---

================

Gotta Collect? Then You Gotta Connect - Join our Collectors’ Community!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 3:00 am and is filed under collecting fyi, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.