graphic novels

i collect books...but i dont necessarily read all of them. i used to read constantly when i was a kid: from the san francisco chronicle, to the trilogy of the rings...the lion, the witch and the wardrobe series (did not know of the friendship between the two authors until today), and then malcolm x's autobiography, as well as anything tom wolfe...to my parent's college text books: i  was reading it...taking it in. but after like, eleven years of college, i dont really read books anymore. i do read the wall street journal daily, aol.com...occasionally tmz and perez hilton, as well as everything on etsy...additionally,  all of the 50+ blogs i get a feed from, research info for my four blogs...technical stuff i need to know to complete whatever project i might be working on....and dont forget email and twitter's stream: basically, everything on-line and frankly, i read enough! when i am purchasing a piece for my collection, these days i really prefer picture books because i am more of a visual person than the typical intellectual type here in dc. recently i have added  a few books to my shelves. 

the first is a retrospective of charles harper, illustrator extraordinaire...

reintroduced to us by admirer todd oldham. this book originally came out as a large coffee table book, but was recently published in a smaller format that i find more useful for perusing. next, i bought a work from my second favorite tom and jerry director (after my idol chuck jones), gene deitch, who apparently was the graphics guy for a hard core jazz 'zine when he was in his 20's: truly amazing work.

another book that recently rocked my world  was a gift from cherie lester: a retrospective of photographer tim walker. my mom subscribed to "the good book" (vogue) back in the 70's and i remember a lot of his photos from those vintage editions: super great.

so...i am inspired to create!

these three very different tombs are giving me some kind of motivation to work on a new line of jewelry that is both surreal and cartoonish yet completely modern and very wearable! did i mention 'cool'? more to come next week after i set some stones...