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Fran Herndon

Spring 2009 Issue

Fran Herndon met Jim Herndon in Paris in the late 1950s. They returned together to San Francisco where Fran met and became friends with the central poets and artists of the San Francisco Renaissance, including Jack Spicer, Robin Blaser, Robert Duncan, and Jess, and today with writers such as George Albon, Norma Cole, and Kevin Killian. At Spicer's insistence, Fran began taking print-making and painting classes at the San Francisco Art Institute, thus beginning her ongoing life as an artist. Her prints appear alongside Spicer's poems in The Heads of the Town Up to the Aether. Her sports collages, originally printed in Everything as Expected, were reprinted with some of Spicer's poems in The Golem, published by Granary books. In addition, Herndon's artwork was on a SUNY Buffalo Special Collections Library Holiday broadside, and on the covers of books by Elizabeth Robinson and George Stanley.

Recently Herndon has been making paintings, drawings, and pastels; she has shown her work at Canessa Park Gallery in San Francisco, where she will have a retrospective show in September of this year.

Ramona Szczerba

Summer 2010 Issue

When Ramona Szczerba (a.k.a. Winona Cookie) is not being a psychologist in private practice in San Diego, she’s busy making art, something she has done for as long as she can remember. She enjoys creating whimsical children’s illustrations in watercolor, but also loves working with collage and assemblage. She favors the darkest faeries, legendary women, arcane subject matter and inventors who never were. She is currently obsessed with the steampunk genre and is trying to keep up with the torrent of characters who insist on being depicted and having their stories told. She has illustrated several coloring books and published two calendars; three of her pieces with their accompanying stories will appear in the upcoming anthology of steampunk short fiction, Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded. “Tesla” will also be included in the upcoming Steampunk Bible.

Zahi Khamis

Spring 2010 Issue

Born in the Palestinian village of Reineh outside of Nazareth in 1959, Zahi Khamis (www.zahiart.com) emigrated to Europe and then to the United States in his early twenties. After earning his degree in Mathematics, and studying Literature and the Humanities extensively, Zahi eventually turned towards painting as his primary form of expression. Appearing in a number of solo and group exhibits, including shows at the United Nations, the U.S. Senate, The Palestine Center (Washington D.C) and the Carnegie Institute for Peace (Washington, D.C), Zahi’s work has been featured in numerous publications in the United States and abroad. Influenced by the modernism of Picasso and Matisse as well as the Mexican muralists, Zahi’s work is part of the long tradition of committed art. He currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his children and wife, author Kim Jensen. He teaches Arabic at Goucher College.

Euf Lindeboom

Summer 2011 Issue

Euf Lindeboom is a Dutch visual artist. She graduated from the Minerva Art Academy (1991, Groningen). She lives and works in The Hague (The Netherlands). You can see much more of her wonderful work at: www.euflindeboom.nl The painting used for the cover in this issue is titled "little cottage in the wood," 2009, oil on canvas, 27.6 x 19.7 inches.

Ann Mikolowski

Spring 2011 Issue

In addition to her portraits of poets and artists, Ann Mikolowski (1940-1999) did numerous magazine and book covers. Her work is represented in the Detroit Institute of Art as well as private and corporate collections around the country. She was co-publisher of The Alternative Press for over thirty years.

This portrait of writer Bei Dao, measuring 3 and 3/8" by 4 and 5/8" inches, is one of a series of miniature portraits of poets, which includes depictions of John Ashbery, Ron Padgett, Robert Creeley, Ted Berrigan, and numerous others. Read John Yau's excellent discussion of these portraits here.

Gladys Swan

Gladys Swan is both a writer and a visual artist. She has published two novels, Carnival for the Gods and Ghost Dance: A Play of Voices, and seven collections of short fiction. She was the first writer since the inception of the Vermont Studio Center to receive a fellowship for a residency in painting. Some of her paintings have been used as cover art for various literary magazines and books, including her most recent work, The Tiger’s Eye: New & Selected Stories, which has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The painting is entitled "Steep Ascent," 30"h x 22"w, oil on paper. Learn more about Gladys Swan on here website HERE

Jack Walsh

Spring 2013 Issue

Jack Walsh is a man of mystery living in Minneapolis, MN . . . more to come! Meanwhile, get to know his work HERE.

Joseph Poppy

Fall 2013 Issue

Joseph Poppy has been working in the arts for more than twenty years. He has studied Minneapolis College of Art & Design and the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, and his work has been exhibited in many juried shows including the 2013 Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition. In that show, his painting "Shelter" won 2nd place honors in the Class 1 category as well as the Bloomington Theater and Art Center Award. His work is in a number of private and corporate collections. For more information go to josephpoppy.com

Front cover:
"Balance" 22" x 28" acrylic on canvas;
Back cover:
"Connection" 38" x 46" acrylic on canvas.

Xavier Tavera

After moving from Mexico City to the United States, Xavier Tavera learned what it felt like to be part of a subculture—the immigrant community. Subjected to alienation has transformed the focus of his photos to sharing the lives of those who are marginalized. Images have offered insight into the diversity of numerous communities and given a voice to those who are often invisible.

Tavera has shown his work extensively in the Twin Cities, nationally and internationally including Chile, Uruguay, and China. His work is part of the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Plains Art Museum, and the Weisman Art Museum. He is a recipient of the McKnight fellowship, Jerome Travel award, State Arts Board, and Bronica scholarship. Visit his website HERE.

THE FIFTH BEATLE

The Brian Epstein Story
Vivek J. Tiwary and Andrew C. Robinson, with Kyle Baker
edited by Philip Simon
Dark Horse/M Press ($19.99)

by John Eisler

Amidst the recent plethora of Beatles-related publications comes a graphic novel dramatizing the eponymous “fifth Beatle,” manager Brian Epstein. While the fab four are no strangers to the comics—indeed, they are veritable pop superheroes—here they play background characters in this well-wrought dramatization of Epstein’s too-short life.

The Fifth Beatle doesn’t exactly add anything new to Beatles lore; recounted are all the familiar moments that even casual fans may know, including Epstein’s marketing savvy (he dressed those rough boys in suits), pill addiction, and tortured homosexuality. But the book excels at rendering all of this as a graphic story. Vivek J. Tiwary has clearly thought about the arc and theme of his story, rendering Epstein as a visionary outsider undone by an inhospitable world, and his artist collaborators serve him well, giving the saga the appropriate epic sweep.

Indeed, the art is almost a character in this work. Settings both moody and mod evoke the unique style of a bygone era. Expressionistic color and framing help unveil the story, occasionally reversing the feel of reality and dream sequence. And the book’s European format (larger than American) offers the equivalent of Cinemascope, allowing artists Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle Baker (the latter of whom renders the Beatles’ infamous Philippines concert fiasco) bigger canvases on which to govern time through the magic of panel and page.

As of this writing Epstein has just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a move presciently called for by Billy J. Kramer in his introduction to this book. It’s an honor a bit belated, perhaps, but certainly well deserved. Here’s hoping that cartoonist Howard Cruse is also foretelling the future in his afterword. In it, he discusses gay people’s struggles and how the Beatles’ music “helped make an unending expansion of human possibilities feel joyous instead of scary,” framing that advance in light of the current fight for marriage equality. What a fitting legacy for Brian Epstein that would be: not just Beatlemania, but love, love, love.