BLOWN AWAY BY BOOKS ART POSTER

Books are the great memory of the world. As Jorge Luis Borges once wrote “I believe books will never disappear. It is impossible for it to happen. Of all mankind’s diverse tools, undoubtedly the most astonishing are his books. If books were to disappear, history would disappear.”

In 1997 I was asked to design a poster for Seattle’s Northwest Bookfest. The original was done in pen and ink with gouache. I think you easily recognize a few of my favorite creatures scattered through the composition here and there. My Sitka pal John Straley contributed a short missive. I recently scanned the pen and ink drawing and turned to Grace Freeman to digitally colorize it in photoshop. As always, she did an extraordinary job and really brought the image back to life.

Someday I hope to have a trilobite shirt just like the dude on the right.