The Tolkien Inspired Art of Jian Guo

                                                       The Fate of Beren and Luthien

I came across some beautiful artwork a few days ago, Tolkien inspired art that truly impressed me. The artist's name is Jian Guo. He is known as breathing2004 on deviantArt. I am always concerned with mythical, mystical spiritual inspiration in art, music and literature. The world around us, the universe we live in is filled with mystery and opportunities for devotion or simply appreciation. Jian Guo's stained glass-like art, especially his Tolkien inspired pieces are simply glorious to behold, distinctive and beautiful. As others have said about his work it falls somewhere between stained-glass art and medieval style art work.

                                       The Lord of the Rings cover art, Chinese versions

Tolkien himself mentioned that all of us who create are merely sub-creators and that any gifts we have come from the grand creator, God himself. All our gifts come from that Holy and Divine genius. If you would like to buy Guo's work you can go here. Find all of his collection on his deviantArt page. Enjoy!

                          The Return of the King

Antiquitypunk? Anyone? Anyone?

Steampunk.

It's a popular genre and has been for quite some time now. Some might say it's past it's heyday. I don't know about that. I plan to write a steampunk series sometime in the next year so I hope that isn't true. Even if it were in some peoples' minds, publishing is different now so you can pretty much write anything you want and someone will want to read it, no matter how "out of style" the genre may be.

In any case, I don't think the steampunk sub-genre will ever truly go out of style. I follow a fellow on Facebook, Daniel Proulx, who creates steampunk jewelry. He also posts a lot of wonderful steampunk conceptual art pieces that he finds on to his FB page. Here are a few of my favorites:

But it got me wondering yesterday. That and an interview I was listening to on the Adventures of SciFi Publishing podcast about something older - antiquitypunk. Ancient people's used machines often to tell time, seasons and to study the stars. There are other ancient machines as well that I can't recall the names of at the moment. Oh, there's a famous archeological find called the Antikythera Mechanism that comes to my mind.

What would antiquitypunk look like? What would it be like? what kind of stories could populate such a world? Perhaps ancient flying balloons instead of dirigibles? Or mechanical bow and arrows that shoot arrows of fire that explode on impact, like bunker-busters? Or mechanical horses and chariots? Wooden and metal submarines? Airplanes shaped like birds, made of wood with wings of linen? I don't know. There's a lot to think about. It just gets me thinking that perhaps I should write a short story involving this sub-genre just mostly as a place holder for future ideas.

Anyone else out there have any ideas?

Geeking Out: Fan Films

I've only recently been getting into fan films and I'm discovering a lot of wonderful content out there.

I love the independent arts. Indie news. Indie films. Indie books. Indie music. Indie art. Open source software and programs. Fan films. I just love the great stuff that's coming out of people, on their own steam and their own resources. It's like a Renaissance of independent content and culture.

Anyway, I saw The Hunt For Gollum last night and I loved it. You can watch it here if you haven't already seen it - if you happen to be a big Lord of the Rings fan like I am, you'll enjoy it. I plan to watch another one, Born of Hope, which can be found here. The production values, the score, the acting is wonderful in tHfG so check it out. Oh, and it's free, of course! You can also get a free copy of the soundtrack which is also good. And if you really like it, donate to them. On the Born of Hope website there is a Paypal donation button. Indie artists and content creators work hard. Show your appreciation with your pocketbook when you can.

Then there's the matter of a Dune fan film that was in production in Spain but the breaks have been put on it by the Herbert Foundation. I hope this can get worked out because i would love to see a well made Dune fan film. In fact, I would love to see Dune remade, by a director who loves and respects the work who can get the right amount of funding/budget for it. Dune always needed at least two films for the story to properly be told. Below is some wonderful Dune artwork I found on Mark Molnar's sketchblog.

If someone could use his art as the conceptual art for a new Dune film trilogy or series - I would be in Sci-Fi heaven!