Notes from the Studio

Last weekend Karen and I hosted the opening reception of my exhibition: ‘Stardust Rising’ at the William King Regional Arts Center. That’s us standing in front of a 5 x 10 ft digital reproduction of the art from my new painting of the fairy market. For those with sharp eyes, we’re also in the painting itself, standing in the tent directly behind, exchanging gifts. Adam Justice (standing in the second photo with Pat Jessee), the curator and I decided to add a little visual spice to the exhibition by building a enormous tree that enveloped the passageway between the two gallery spaces as well as erecting a replica of my working studio. Several days of steady work was necessary to transform the exhibition space in time for the opening reception. After six months of serious detective work I was very pleased to be able to display 35 paintings borrowed from gracious owners all across the US as well as several from overseas. For me it was like a grand and glorious family reunion as I hadn’t seen some of these pieces in 10 years. It was very exciting to spend time with them again and, in some cases, I was

I thought that you might enjoy these links to reports on my lecture at the Society of Illustrators last week, ‘Part Seen, Part Imagined’. Lots of pictures, especially in this link:  http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/resources/news_story/8471/ Irene Gallo, who instigated the event in the first place, has also written about the evening:  http://igallo.blogspot.com/ You’ll need to scroll down a few posts there. Best, Charles

On Wednesday of last week I was invited to NYC to attend a private screening of Stardust as part of the Tribeca Film Fest. Not an offer I was prepared to forgo. So last night, with friend and art pal, Michael Kaluta I found myself working my way through a hotel lobby full of bright young things and soon arrived at the Stardust screening room. Posh seats for, at most, 50 people. Filling those seats were several of the movie’s stars (Robert DeNiro, Clare Danes, Charlie Cox), producers (Lorenzo di Bonaventura, etc.) and many faces both recognizable and not. Matthew Vaughan , the director, introduced the film and the lights went down. Nervous couldn’t half describe how I was feeling at that moment. What if I found myself cringing at what had been done to “my” story. What if everyone started walking out? What if, what if… But all of that ‘noise’ quickly dissapeared as the story began to unfold on screen. And over the next two hours everything that I could have wanted was all there; action, humor, romance, a touch of horror, special effects that were there in service to the story being told, an epic scope as

I’ll be in NYC on May 2 to present a lecture at the Society of Illustrators on the art of the fantastic. The Society houses an amazing collection of work by its founding fathers (Rockwell, Leyendecker, Harvey Dunn, Mead Shaffer, etc.) as well as being THE showcase for contemporary illustration. Needless to say it will be both a thrill and an honor to be there. CHARLES VESS Part Seen, Part Imagined An informal visual survey of three predominate threads of the fantastic in the arts: the english fairy painters, the american pulp tradition, and the visionary artist. Wednesday May 2nd, 2007 6:30 PM $10.00 / $6.00 students Society of Illustrators 128 East 63rd Street New York, NY 10021 212.838.2560 info@societyillustrators.org The images above will be a small part of the lecture and presentation. The new deluxe reissue of the hardcover edition of Stardust will go on sale that same Wednesday so I’ll be signing at Jim Hanely’s Universe (across from the Empire state Building) on that Friday (May 4th) from 6-8pm. http://www.jhuniverse.com/page/rvel/Events__amp__News_at_JHU.html I hope to see some of you at either or both of these events. Best, Charles

I thought that I should let everyone know that the first, official trailer for the Stardust movie went live on Yahoo.Com this weekend. Here’s the link: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809426615/info I don’t know about you but I want to see all of it as soon as possible. I’m very excited! Also, the website for the movie is now up and running with lots of pretty pictures. Over the next few months be sure to check back as there will be lots more content uploaded. http://www.stardustmovie.com/ I will be a guest (along with Charles de Lint) at MiniCon in Minneapolis over the weekend of April 6-8 where I will be, among other events, displaying some of my new Stardust art as well as presenting a panel on the movie (w/ the trailer, lots and lots of stills and whatever else Paramount sees fit to send me). I hope that I see you there. Best, Charles