… despite myself.
But first, the Tolkien event in Rennes was good fun, and like usual, I of course missed most of it. My apologies to those who waited absolutely ages to have their books signed only to glimpse me walking out the door. I double-checked with the bookshop people who assured me everyone had been taken care of, but as I’ve been informed by a rather disapponted candidate, several people must have been overlooked. I’m always kind of dazed after more than three hours drawing pictures and doing signatures, and rely on the organizers to look after logisitics. My apologies, I was also rather distracted by news of the national transit strike scheduled for the following day… (I did make it home, by the way, and the hike across Paris was scenic if somewhat hurried).
Admittedly airport personnel are more accustomed to skis than swords, but WHAT did they possibly think I was going to hide INSIDE a sword? I was intrigued of course, a chance to see the innards of my material doesn’t come every day.
Alas, I was unable to obtain a print of the x-ray and and was told we don’t allow the issuing of prints of personal property sir. (This was of course accompanied by that inimitable uniformed stare and the invisible subtitle of “Come on say just one thing more and you’ll like really make my day which has been a bit slow until right now”, so I didn’t insist and went obediently to my gate.
Tolkien exhibition:
The next venue is in Charleville-Mézières, in the French Ardennes, at the local mediatheque. We will also be printing a third limited print to follow up on Orthanc Destroyed and Gandalf (from the LOTR Boardgame). The opening will be on May 6th. More details as soon as I have them.
Coming up:
Details will follow, but it looks like it’s going to happen! A small selection of a dozen pieces of Lord of the Rings film artwork will be on show at the Geneva Book Fair at the end of this month. This is a European premiere, folks; as far as I know, barring the show in Toronto in late 2001, this is the first time originals will be visible outside New Zealand.
It will be a very modest presentation of a dozen of my sketches, but it’ll be great fun nonetheless to see them in frames rather than their usual environment – under coffee cups, strewn on workshop floors and benches or pinned to the wall for the umpteenth time.
On the drawing board:
The Numenor map is nearly done, just a few more bits to go.
Next up? Let me check… some black and white sketches for the other maps to go in the new booklet, followed by some more black and white sketches for the French edition of Meditations on Middle-Earth.
Otherwise, spring is here, time to go weed out those pesky dandelions…
See you next week!
