All One Life - 3D book by Jon Strongbow

Fantagraphics recently released Jon Strongbow's 3-D art book, All One Life, which was in progress before he joined the flying Aztec hunter in the sky one year ago.

"In stunning 3D imagery, All One Life is an imaginative collection of postcolonial, spiritually inflected images portraying the city of Seattle's past and present. Inspired by a 3-page comic by the French cartoonist Jean Giraud (Moebius) illustrating a speech by Chief Seattle, Seattle-based cartoonist Jon Strongbow went on a spiritual journey. He studied at the Red Cedar Circle, a community dedicated to the ancient teachings of the First Peoples of the Northwest Coast, attended a local Tibetan monastery, and was mentored by local native healers and medicine people. Deeply moved by these teachings, he sought to honor the culture of the original inhabitants and refute the devastation wrought upon them by depicting today's Seattle imbued with ghosts of the original inhabitants of Northwest Coastal natives. All One Life is a series of 29 stunningly imaginative images meticulously rendered and expertly transformed into 3D -- (glasses required and included) -- that juxtapose the city's past and present, indicating what we have lost by destroying the tribal nations. Many of the images feature masked dancers from all over the world and how they invigorate the modern streets. There are also shamanic images, especially spirit entities, such as the dream time Wandjina spirits of Australia and the Hopi and Zuni Kachinas in the Four Corners area. Strongbow also showcases endangered species: a whale swims in the streets of Pioneer Square, echoing their near extinction caused by aggressive whaling by Americans, Germans, and Japanese; dinosaurs roam the city's streets, reminding us that many creatures have had their day, and we may have had ours. All One Life is a series of stunning images chronicling the transformation of Seattle that is both imaginatively fanciful and profoundly elegiac."--  Fantagraphics

This beautifully produced work includes ultra-cool 3-D glasses, and we at Pistil Books have been enjoying the book with our friends.

Remembering Jon Strongbow

Our friend Seattle artist Jon Strongbow passed away suddenly in December.  His family has organized a memorial for him this Tuesday afternoon at Pike Place Market, where he sold his art for a long time and lived in an artist's space the last couple of years.

We had been friends of  Jon's for more than twenty-something years and held him in the highest regard.  We met Jon when we had a retail store on Pike and we sold his publications, which we continue to do in our online store  He used to live up the street from us in Madrona and we would often see him biking up the hill on Union in front of our house, and he would regularly stop by for visits in our front garden or back balcony during the pandemic. 

Masks Required

He was a lover and collector of books, especially comics, graphic novels, and sci fi,  and always showed up at our summer outdoor book sale, leaving with bags of books balanced on his bicycle handles.  He often asked us to order books for him he found online because he didn't have a credit card (perhaps distrusting banks?).  Jon was always friendly, kind, and upbeat.  My favorite quote from his book Ocean of Time, which depicts detailed, accurate cityscapes of Seattle with people from native cultures in ritual costumes celebrating life (the theme of all his work) is "Most people don't seem to understand or appreciate how precious & magical life really is." 

 

Concrete River

 

Jon was very supportive of other artists -- publishing a book on Pike Place Market buskers and a beautiful hardback book on local collage artists that came out just a month before he died called Northwest Mystic Collage that Sean and I are very pleased to be included in.

I can imagine Jon now as a spirit -- joining the masked native figures dancing and playing music in the streets of Seattle that he depicted in his artwork.

 

 Jon Strongbow and Kam (Pistil photographer) outside our front gate - both dressed as they normally are.

Here's Jon shopping for books by bike at the Pistil outdoor book sale.

Masks Required

 Our local Metro buses have been showing "Essential Trips Only" and "Masks Required" on their signs during the pandemic.  With this in mind, Seattle artist and friend of Pistil Books, Jon Strongbow, showed us his latest drawing today:

You can purchase books of Jon's work here.

Visionary Surrealism at the Pike Place Market

Seattle artist Jon Strongbow has published a new book showcasing his fellow artists who sell their work at the Pike Place Market.  The artists he presents are part of  "an ongoing grass roots art movement that could be designated as Magic Realism, or Visionary Surrealism, or what is now called Low Brow Art or Pop Surrealism in some circles. It begins back in the 1970's when the Market started allowing artists and craftspeople to participate in the market, which had previously been dominated by farmers and flower growers."

Some of the artists included are Tim Winstrom, Paul Sloan, Dharmic Engineers, Rob Schouten, Ray Pelley, Milo Duke, Winston Haycock, Kim Drew, Melanie Reed, Mark Holter, Blake Klazmer, Craig Anderson, Aaron Murphy, Dave Ryan, Robert Williams, Jesse Link, Alex Achaval, Sally Simmons, Kevin Darras, David Gould, Graham Callen, Rob D'Arc, and Scott Alberts.

Visionary Surrealism at the Pike Place Market is available to purchase here.

We also carry books of Jon Strongbow's own work.  His detailed black and white line drawings of Seattle cityscapes juxtapose realistic architectural renderings with scenes embracing indigenous cultures from all over the planet, including extinct and endangered species. Though he didn't set out to record the city's changing landscape, these drawings also inadvertently document the disappearing places of Seattle.

Pistil Books Outdoor Book Sale 2018

On Saturday we held our annual outdoor yard sale/book sale.  I scheduled it a month ago when Seattle was experiencing heat in the 90's combined with smoke from wildfires and didn't expect that I would be worried about rain in the first week of September.  Saturday was gray and cloudy and I felt a couple of raindrops fall, but luckily we made it through the day without showers.

We had a steady stream of browsers and customers the whole day.  People were sitting on stools and cushions reading, chatting, and drinking lemonade.  We were visited by a mix of people who knew about Pistil and had been to our annual sale before and those who had never heard of us.  They found out about the book sale from our email announcement, telephone pole posters, Craigslist ad, and plugs from The Stranger, Seattle Review of Books, and SeattleMet listings.

Jon Strongbow came by, as he does every year, and presented us with a copy of  his spiral bound book-in-progress, Visonary Surrealism at the Pike Place Market.  It is thick and full of color images of artwork.  Jon even mentioned Sean and I as Seattle collage artists, though since we aren't part of Pike Place Market, our work wasn't included.  He left the book sale with a cloth bag of books precariously hanging from his bicycle handlebars.

Our neighbor Eletha--who used to shelve books in our retail store in exchange for book credit-- came by to show us her sketch book full of beautiful color pencil drawings she made based on images of animals and bugs from volumes of the Golden Book Encyclopedia she had found at our free pole.   She left the book sale with a set of laminated illlustrated pamphlets depicting the insects of Britain.

Our friend Marin arrived to cut down a damaged branch from a tree on his neighboring property that was hanging down over the sidewalk.  When Sean saw him with his small chainsaw, his chainsaw competiveness reared up and he went and got his bigger chainsaw (for use on his rural property, not normally something that comes in handy on Capitol Hill).  Not every book sale has timber felling.  Greg B., a local English  teacher and longtime Pistil supporter captured the event on film.

Chris, from Left Bank Books (a collectively run bookstore in the Pike Place Market which is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year) came by, as he usually does, and gleaned a box of books.  We exchanged tales of bookselling in the age of cell phone culture.  He said he overheard someone say as the passed Left Bank, "Are books hip again?"  At our sale I observed one woman ask her friend if she should buy a book or just take a photo of it.  She took a photo and walked away...

At the stroke of 4pm, the advertised end of the sale, all the browsers vanished and we immediately packed up, boxes of books going into the back of the Pathfinder for distribution to Little Free Libraries.

Thank you to Kam and Michael J. for helping us set up and shut down.

Pistil Books is 25!  1993-2018

Food for Thought

Today at lunch Kam and I were joined by local artist Jon Strongbow who came by to pick up a book he ordered.  Kam and Jon have only met each other a couple of times, but they must be fashion soul mates as this photo taken outside our front gate attests:

The day was bright and sunny and we were able to sit on the balcony.  For lunch today we had a salad with romaine lettuce, red cabbage, yellow carrots, cherry tomatoes, and toasted pumpkin seeds; served with this we had roasted golden beets, grilled onions and sweet peppers, olives, pepperoncini, hummus, Bulgarian feta cheese, and pita bread.  Kam and I split a can of dry cider, and for dessert we had a bit of dark chocolate with cinnamon, cayenne, and cherries, spicy!

What we're reading:

My sister loaned me a graphic novel she loved:  Stiches:  A Memoir by David Small.  It's the dark story of the author's 1950's childhood in an unhappy and uncommunicative family and his experience of having what he thought was a minor operation that was really to treat thyroid cancer he was not told about, and which he got after being exposed to radiation to treat sinus issues by his doctor father.  The drawings are haunting and beautiful.
--Amy

This week I am reading Edmund White’s collection of essays called Our Paris. Also a book on the home life of William Morris. And the Journal of Eugene Delacroix.  Our Paris is like a more serious David Sedaris, and Delacroix is something of a harbinger of Proust.
--Kam

"I am reading a trilogy by a guy named Barry Hughart and it’s pretty awesome.  The first one is called Bridge of Birds and it’s basically about Chinese history and Chinese mythology and he extrapolates from that. the story is about a China that never existed but should’ve existed and it’s really beautiful. The dialogue is hilarious; of course it’s bloody like a mythology story, but there’s magic in it in a tragic kind of Chinese way."
--Jon Strongbow

Presenting Works by Two Seattle Artists: Jon Strongbow and Tim Fowler

We are pleased to be selling works by two different Seattle artists.

In a series started in 1992, Jon Strongbow's detailed black and white line drawings of Seattle cityscapes juxtapose realistic architectural renderings with scenes embracing indigenous cultures from all over the planet, including extinct and endangered species.   There's even a drawing with the old Pistil Books & News storefront on Pike Street in the background.

Pistil Books is carrying his two new books, City of Spirits and Mystic City: 

On our Etsy site, we are also carrying block prints by Tim Fowler, self-taught Seattle based artist, who works in woodcarving, mosaic sculpture, painting, and printmaking.  His mosaic fence and colorful mosaic, metal and wood sculptures (including Easter Island heads, motorcyclists, and devils), and antique (some would say "rusty") vehicles make his home and yard a landmark in Seattle's Central District.  We have one of Tim's wonderful mosaic sculptures - a large salmon - watching over our front yard.

Tim says, "I was drawing pictures of cars and bugs in junior high when my art education stopped, and I haven't gotten over it since."

Tim Fowler has shown his art at Mia Gallery, Garde Rail Gallery, I.E. Gallery, Studio E, and the American Visionary Museum (Baltimore).