My own Mack gallery, and you are all invited

[GelfXIII]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Madams et Monsieurs, Mr. Mack, Miss Amano and all the rest of the inmates of this board:

You are all proudly invited to a virtual tour of my David Mack Gallery (aka... the living room.)

First, some back story: last year I was lucky enough to obtain the much coveted German Portfolio on eBay. Needless to say, I was thrilled with my purchase, as was my wife. She had not previously been an aficionado of Mr. Mack's work, but one viewing of the portfolio had her completely won over (She has since read all the TPs and the current run of Alchemy and is as die-hard as all the rest of us.) Encouraged by my lovely lady's admiration of the art, I suggested, somewhat timidly, that we have some few pieces from the portfolio framed, and display them on our living room walls, which we were planning on repainting. No sooner had the suggestion left my lips than she jumped on the idea. We leafed through the portfolio again, selecting our favorites in the hope that at the upcoming Wizard World East I might be able to get David to sign some of them. I was thinking we might have 4 or 6 pieces signed and framed. As we went through the number of favorites that we couldn’t possibly live without wound up in the neighborhood of 20 (far more than we had wall space to accommodate!) None-the-less, undaunted, I bundled up the portfolio and struck out to the wild hinterlands of Philadelphia to plead the good Mr. Mack for the favor of some autographs.
Well, as we all can relate, I found David to be generous to a fault, signing every page in my portfolio, taking time to discuss individual pages, and just being David.


Well, from there, things went down hill, I'm afraid. The custom framing was quite a bit more expensive than I had expected, and it became necessary to delay the full framing job until funds became available, which meant breaking them up into lots, and doing them piecemeal. Happily, the framing is now complete, the walls are painted, the new rug is in, and just yesterday we finally got all the art hung. (hanged?)

So here we go, around the room clockwise, starting facing west:



Next to the front door is the double image from Dreams, titled “Bones of a Dragon”. This is one of my favorite images from all of Kabuki. The seam in this picture is much more noticeable here than it is in real life, but it is there.



Panning clockwise from the front door, past the stairs, we come to



I call this set “Mother and the Waterfall” these two strikingly beautiful pieces are actually taken out of context from the book (“Dreams” again), but taken as a set they play off each other, both in color palate and internal content. Together there is a triangular motion, up from Kabuki to her Mother in waterfall, and then on the right, from Mother back to Kabuki. Underpinning both is the downward motion of the water, tying it all together.

Panning to the right we see the dominant works in the room, the “Four Faces of Kabuki”



Here we have constructed a sequence of individual, stand-alone images from various Covers and singles. There was a fabulous serendipity to the choices of these images, because it was completely unplanned on our part. We had selected these simply because we really liked them, not with any plan of tying them all together, but when we placed these images in a row we saw the flow and force of them as a single statement, the heads turning incrementally up and left, flowing from the first to the third, and then resolving on the full figure image of Kabuki in costume, dancing with her blades.




Looking past the fabulous foursome we see another of my favorite images, “the Lady and the Mask”



The two-tonal qualities of this image are particularly useful in transitioning around the room towards the mantlepiece’s statement in duality.




This is another discovery, but one that was no doubt very much in David’s mind when he created them. These are actually 2 separate images, but they tied together so well, and so completely that we felt we had no choice but to frame them as one piece and hang them together in the position of honor above the mantle piece. “Duality” as I’ve taken to calling it divides the sides Kabukis character into it’s component elements as nothing else can. The color side, unmarred and beautiful, its eclipsed sun illuminating darkness, the brush an implement of creation… and its inverse, the scarred side, dark yet powerful, the Sun merging into the being, the brush seems more threatening. And yet all one whole.



Looking past the mantle, and again playing off our two-tone theme we see another stand alone image, this one of Scarab, beautiful yet stark, clean and pure.



Which brings us back to the beginning of our tour.



I hope you’ve enjoyed this little trip, and don’t think us too presumptuous. I wish to thank David again for creating such beauty, which henceforth will brighten every day of our lives, and thank the rest of you on this board for making me realize that there are others who feel as we do about this stuff.

Sincerely
Andrew R. Gelfman
Arlington, VA
8-15-2005

[who cares?]

wow, that is really beautiful............


i cant wait to get my prints up on the walls of my room......

[milx]

that IS sooo beautiful!! best way to decorate the wall

[rustedangel]

Wow!
=)

[Izebhel]

dang, that's a nice collection! thanks for sharing!

[GelfXIII]

So, A colleague from work came over the other night to pick some stuff up and was really into the art. I may have a new convert for us! I leant him COB and Dreams and told him I'd give him the rest when he finished those. He called me today and said he was ready for the next 2 books, and that he stayed up all night reading them (which is why he wasn't into work today!)

[TheBradster]

That's quite a collection.

[RED!]

one helluva collection.

[AvidFan]

beautiful

and yes it is 'hung'!!!


AF.

[MACK!]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Madams et Monsieurs, Mr. Mack, Miss Amano and all the rest of the inmates of this board:

You are all proudly invited to a virtual tour of my David Mack Gallery (aka... the living room.)

First, some back story: last year I was lucky enough to obtain the much coveted German Portfolio on eBay. Needless to say, I was thrilled with my purchase, as was my wife. She had not previously been an aficionado of Mr. Mack's work, but one viewing of the portfolio had her completely won over (She has since read all the TPs and the current run of Alchemy and is as die-hard as all the rest of us.) Encouraged by my lovely lady's admiration of the art, I suggested, somewhat timidly, that we have some few pieces from the portfolio framed, and display them on our living room walls, which we were planning on repainting. No sooner had the suggestion left my lips than she jumped on the idea. We leafed through the portfolio again, selecting our favorites in the hope that at the upcoming Wizard World East I might be able to get David to sign some of them. I was thinking we might have 4 or 6 pieces signed and framed. As we went through the number of favorites that we couldn�t possibly live without wound up in the neighborhood of 20 (far more than we had wall space to accommodate!) None-the-less, undaunted, I bundled up the portfolio and struck out to the wild hinterlands of Philadelphia to plead the good Mr. Mack for the favor of some autographs.
Well, as we all can relate, I found David to be generous to a fault, signing every page in my portfolio, taking time to discuss individual pages, and just being David.


Well, from there, things went down hill, I'm afraid. The custom framing was quite a bit more expensive than I had expected, and it became necessary to delay the full framing job until funds became available, which meant breaking them up into lots, and doing them piecemeal. Happily, the framing is now complete, the walls are painted, the new rug is in, and just yesterday we finally got all the art hung. (hanged?)

So here we go, around the room clockwise, starting facing west:



Next to the front door is the double image from Dreams, titled �Bones of a Dragon�. This is one of my favorite images from all of Kabuki. The seam in this picture is much more noticeable here than it is in real life, but it is there.



Panning clockwise from the front door, past the stairs, we come to



I call this set �Mother and the Waterfall� these two strikingly beautiful pieces are actually taken out of context from the book (�Dreams� again), but taken as a set they play off each other, both in color palate and internal content. Together there is a triangular motion, up from Kabuki to her Mother in waterfall, and then on the right, from Mother back to Kabuki. Underpinning both is the downward motion of the water, tying it all together.

Panning to the right we see the dominant works in the room, the �Four Faces of Kabuki�



Here we have constructed a sequence of individual, stand-alone images from various Covers and singles. There was a fabulous serendipity to the choices of these images, because it was completely unplanned on our part. We had selected these simply because we really liked them, not with any plan of tying them all together, but when we placed these images in a row we saw the flow and force of them as a single statement, the heads turning incrementally up and left, flowing from the first to the third, and then resolving on the full figure image of Kabuki in costume, dancing with her blades.




Looking past the fabulous foursome we see another of my favorite images, �the Lady and the Mask�



The two-tonal qualities of this image are particularly useful in transitioning around the room towards the mantlepiece�s statement in duality.




This is another discovery, but one that was no doubt very much in David�s mind when he created them. These are actually 2 separate images, but they tied together so well, and so completely that we felt we had no choice but to frame them as one piece and hang them together in the position of honor above the mantle piece. �Duality� as I�ve taken to calling it divides the sides Kabukis character into it�s component elements as nothing else can. The color side, unmarred and beautiful, its eclipsed sun illuminating darkness, the brush an implement of creation� and its inverse, the scarred side, dark yet powerful, the Sun merging into the being, the brush seems more threatening. And yet all one whole.



Looking past the mantle, and again playing off our two-tone theme we see another stand alone image, this one of Scarab, beautiful yet stark, clean and pure.



Which brings us back to the beginning of our tour.



I hope you�ve enjoyed this little trip, and don�t think us too presumptuous. I wish to thank David again for creating such beauty, which henceforth will brighten every day of our lives, and thank the rest of you on this board for making me realize that there are others who feel as we do about this stuff.

Sincerely
Andrew R. Gelfman
Arlington, VA
8-15-2005

Wow- very cool pics! Thanks for posting