I've been a fan of Dave McKean's art for several years. After first seeing his work in graphic novels, I was drawn to find out more about him. The picture above, entitled "Death" is one of my favorites. I set is as my desktop wallpaper and set the background color so that it perfectly blends in to the picture; everyone who sees it tends to be quite taken aback by the face looking eerily out.
It is hard to say exactly why I find his work so fascinating. His talents are diverse and his art seems to very alive to me. Unlike some paintings or drawings that make me feel like I am distant from them, looking in to find meaning, his works are nothing like that. I feel like I am actively a part of what I am seeing, like there is meaning in it for just ME. I think when I look at the images he creates or captures in photographs and find myself wishing to step inside them. And, of course, the art is gorgeous!
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Here is an example of his photography. I would love to have a print of this on my wall!
And, one last image for good measure since all good things some in threes. This is from a calendar that he made in 1997. Again, absolutely stunning.
I would love to add ten or twenty more, but I suppose it might be a bit much...
~Elizabeth Osinga
Posted by Kristin Jongsma at September 25, 2004 12:35 AM
I love the photograph (image #2), it is eerie and surreal. This image begs the question, what is the story? What is the meaning?
Posted by: Bryan Kibbe at September 26, 2004 10:47 AMyou should check out david mackean's work in neil gamiman's book coraline, and stephen king's harbound wizard and glass book if you haven't already. i really love his art as well, it has a dream like quality to it all even his drawings.
Posted by: paul at September 27, 2004 09:12 AMA fair amount of McKean's work is viewable online at http://dreamline.nu.
Posted by: seth at September 27, 2004 09:28 AMI wish he had an official site, but I know there are quite a few places out there to view his work. I'm so glad someone else has heard of Coraline; one of the best children's books ever--but well, this is Neil Gaiman we're talking about--and with lovely, haunting illustrations. Also, his work on Wolves in the Walls is excellent as well. And his illustrations are my favorites in the Dark Tower series by far!
I first saw Dave McKean on the covers of Neil Gaiman's Sandman and they've done several graphic novels together; I've seen pictures, though I've not read any yet.
I am DYING to see the movie, MirrorMask, that they are working on together which will be out in January. Luckily, I'll get a sneak preview at
Fiddler's Green. Dave McKean is directing and they both wrote it. The images so far are stunning and I hope this will be a challenge to the standards of computer animation in movies.
I'm too lazy to link pictures individually, but if you go to
Neil Gaiman's Journal and scroll down about half-way or so there are several images from the movie if you're interested.