Provisional cover of Love, War, Fire, Wind.

Below is the working cover of the book:



It may remain as is, it may change...

The Logic of War - painting

Here is the color painting based on the drawing (way below somewhere) inspired by the poem by Eliot Katz.


Acrylic on board, 2008, 14" x 11". Click image for bigger.

The painting was pretty dark (both senses) & difficult to shoot. This is not a great photo, but good enough, I hope.

Love, War, Fire, Wind: Looking Out from North America's Skull

Below is the probable cover image from my collaborative book with Eliot Katz, and above is the probable title. As it stands now, the book has 60-odd ink drawings, mostly full-page, & a similar number of poems by Eliot, with a couple of prose pieces, also.


"North America's Skull" painting is 14" x 11", 2008, acrylic on board.

Themes of the book include politics (the Bush years, the Iraq War, globalization protests, etc.) as well as some more personal pieces by Eliot -- love poems and the like.

I'm hoping to have the book available in the next few weeks or so, via Narcissus Press, our small literary publishing house.

Below are some more examples of drawings from the book.


"Death of a Tower", brush & ink on paper, 2008, 9" x 6".


"Roswell", brush & ink on paper, 2008, 9" x 6".


"Requiem", brush & ink on paper, 2008, 9" x 6".


"Broken Bones", brush & ink on paper, 2008, 9" x 6".

Hall Gardner's "The Wake-Up Blast"

I thought I'd put a plug in for a new collection of poetry published by our (Diana & I) small literary press, Narcissus Press. The work is by Paris, France-based poet Hall Gardner, whom we have known for years now. It's a pleasure to bring his impressively international, politically-informed & very erudite poems to a wider public.



The cover painting, "Sub-Urban Landscape" is by Hall himself, a man of many talents. You can currently buy the book here on our online, on-demand printer, Lulu.com (price is $20). It will soon be available on Amazon, etc. I will post links.

Human Column

New brush & ink drawing from the book now workingly titled "Love, War, Fire, Wind: Looking Out from North America's Skull" by Eliot Katz & William T. Ayton. This drawing currently sits alongside the poem, "In Praise of the Seattle Coalition", though as this is a work in progress, it all could change.


Brush & ink on paper, 2008, 9" x 6". Click for larger.

War Mask

Another new small ink drawing from the forthcoming book of poetry/art (Narcissus Press), "Look Out! A View from North America's Skull" in collaboration with NYC poet Eliot Katz.



Brush & ink on paper, 2008, 9" x 6".

The Logic of War

Here is a new drawing (poss. soon to be made into a painting) from a new project -- a book of poetry that I'm working on images for. More details & images anon.


Ink & brush on paper, 2008, 9" x 6".

Ruined Post-Human Post-Apocalyptic Head

No, probably not the title, but maybe. New acrylic monochrome painting of a ruined head. Possibly related to the "Helm Head" painting, with its wooden beam-like structure, or maybe more of a crustacean thing. Time will tell -- if this is a study for something else, or an end in itself...


Pencil & acrylic on paper, 2008, 24" x 18". Click image for bigger.

UDHR drawing Article 6

"Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law." This was always one of my favorite UDHR images -- the iconic figure & "vessel". The painting was used as a poster in Spain in 1992 for the Expo-related shows.


Pencil & ink wash on paper, 1990, 16.5" x 12" approx.

And here is the poster in question, for the Seville human rights show:

Face of Genocide painting

A new painting, which suggested the idea of genocide to me: the layered death's head.


Acrylic on board, 14" x 11", 2008.

Genocide painting

A new painting, which suggested the idea of genocide to me: the layered death's head.

Diana Reads Tumbalalaika

Here is a short YouTube video of Diana reading the poem, "Tumbalalaika" at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, NY, on April 25th 2008. The event was well-attended, lives were changed, heartstrings were pulled, & I was very proud of her. She read around 14 or 15 poems from her book "Tumbalalaika", & the event lasted around an hour. The local TV station, Panda, also videotaped the reading for broadcast. The video here was shot by myself on our trusty camcorder.



Here is the web site for the press: www.NarcissusPublications.com
Here is the YouTube channel: www.YouTube.com/NarcissusPress

Tumbalalaika at Narcissus Press

My wife, partner, goddess, muse, poet, etc., Diana Ayton-Shenker is pleased to announce the publication of her first collection of poetry, "Tumbalalaika" on our very own imprint, Narcissus Press of Rhinebeck, NY. The cover of the book is my painting, "The Temple of Diana" (2006), appropriately enough. Diana is a published writer of political analysis, human rights concerns, and, of course, poetry. She is very good. I haven't been paid to say that. Yet.


Above: the front cover.

www.narcissuspublications.com

More books will follow. "Wake-Up Blast" by Hall Gardner, a collection of poems, is in the works. Another collection of poems by Eliot Katz. A literary review, Narcissus, will also be published...

New Head Shot

In comparison to my startled portrait (see post below) by Nadine Robbins, alongside my wife, Diana, I thought maybe I should set the record straight with an actual photo. I'm not very good at having my photo taken, and not always very photogenic. However, I quite liked this one (even if it's a bit blurry), which I think was taken by Phil Zemke. It was taken a month or so ago. I really must replace the one on my web site bio page, as that one is around 8 years out of date now (update: I just added the above photo to the page). Yikes...