The Triptich...

(I dedicate today's post to Calvin and Karen, a friend from the past and a friend from the present.)

Greetings, Dear Friends of The Tearoom!
I'm showing you a project that I have been working on for a week or so because today, it is done!

In the late 80's, I worked in a bookstore with a very sweet man named Calvin.  He and I clicked right away when we began to work together and we remained friends until his death from AIDS in 1992.  The summer I began to work in this bookstore with him, I had an interest in reading some classic books from the horror/thriller genre and read "The Phantom of The Opera" by Gaston Leroux and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde.  In "The Picture of Dorian Gray", Dorian reads and is influenced by a "morally poisonous" novel.  The name of this novel was not revealed in the text of the book, but reading the introduction, I learned that Oscar Wilde had admitted that this book was the decadent French novel "À Rebours" or "Against Nature" by J.K. Huysmans.  I asked Calvin if he had read this book and he told me he had and encouraged me to do the same.  This decadent book was unlike anything I had read before and I found it fascinating.

Last year, I learned that one of my favorite musicians, Marc Almond, was starting a Kickstarter campaign to fund a musical version of this book he was composing with fellow musician Othon and poet Jeremy Reed.  I contributed to this campaign and followed its progress with interest.  The project was funded, the musical was produced and resulted in a lush, hallucinogenic and decadent musical interpretation of this book.

And so today, I bring to you the unveiling of a triptych of digital collages inspired by and dedicated to the artists responsible for this musical piece!  You can take a peek at the liner notes for the project here, at the official Against Nature website.

(As always, please click the images in order to see them larger.)

Marc Reading "Against Nature"

For the First Time

Othon and The Hypnotic Effects of Music

Jeremy Fashions Poetry from

the Fabric of Words

The frames I used for the collages were adapted from the title page illustration from a 1922 copy of "Against Nature" (or, as it is called for this edition "Against the Grain"), from The Internet Archive.

Other images for the collages came from the painting "The Yellow Scale" by Franz Kupka (1907), Valentine Grimm on Etsy, The Graphics Fairy, YouTube, Othon's website and Jeremy's Twitter site.

The flowers in Othon's and Jeremy's collages were modified from photos of flowers from my own garden.

A big thank you goes to Marc Almond, Othon and Jeremy Reed for their talents which made their project possible and inspired me to do these three pieces of fan art.

Finally, a hug and a big thanks to Karen L-W, my new friend and fellow Marc Almond fan, for making it possible for me to receive a much-cherished souvenir from the Against Nature workshop performance.  Thank you to all who were involved in this surprise for me!