Surreal thinking

See this book cover? Wierd, is it not?

Until my niece Kirsten, who edited the book, introduced me to the genre, I hadn't given pop surrealism a moment's thought. Surrealism, that I associated with what's his name, the guy with the mustache... Salvador Dali. Hip maybe, pop never.

Kirsten, who is a leader in the pop-surrealism field, wrestled for a long time about what title to assign to this type of art. "Lowbrow" is a name that has been associated with certain subsets of the art. I think I am correct in saying the picture of the cars (top center panel of the book cover) would be lowbrow. But much of the rest isn't lowbrow. Imaginative, maybe a bit punky, a little bit of 'tude, but assembled together it ain't lowbrow. It ain't highbrow either.

But it's good bloody fun.

I have taken an interest in the genre. Can't say I've raced out and bought a lot of it. It wouldn't fit in with my house which... actually that's not true. It would fit in with parts of my house. The part that has the delft hand-grenade in it. (If you want to see it, click on the preceding link. Mine is the one without the bunny attached.) Delft fragmentation grenades are part of the pop-surrealist movement. And part of my house.

If you are interested in the genre, check out Roq la Rue, Kirsten's gallery in Seattle.

But here's why I'm writing this. I'm boasting about it. Inside Kirsten's book is a table of acknowledgements to "contributing artists." My name is in there. I helped her a little bit and she put my name into this most unusual book.

I've made it into the the pop-surrealism scene. How surreal.