A Mixed Threesome: Art, Model railroading, Tolkien.

Notebook Magazine (Issue Two, 2007) Issued by a “An Edmonton Art and Writing Collective”. Works are accompanied by answers to a standard interview. The art is generally pretty good, some with a regrettable tendency to shock and annoy, the rest interesting experiments in style and media. The writing is at best average, most of it should have been edited. Much of it assumes that if you have an interesting story to tell, you don’t need to make it interesting.
     I looked up all the contributors online. Most have disappeared from public view, but Timothy Atherton (photos), Heather Millar, Stephanie Jonsson, Bruce Barry are among the few that have continued to make art. Interesting mag, not a keeper. **

Art Curren. Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures (1988). Kitbashing??? The art of using the parts of kits as raw material, rearranging them, cutting and splicing them, and of course painting them and adding new signage, in order to create a structure that better fits the layout design. Curren was a master at doing this. Some of his creations are fairly obvious variations on the basic kit, e.g., Maple Street, five houses made from the same farmhouse kit. Others are new designs, e.g., the Perry Shibble Fruit & Produce Co-op, which began life as a small brewery. That name shows his skill at creating groaners, too, but by the mid-80s punning names were already becoming unfashionable.
     Curren writes well, tossing in the odd warning of possible mishaps, and ‘fessing up to changes he made when he realised his original concept didn’t work out. As inspiration this book is excellent. As a set of project instructions it’s pretty good, too, as most of the kits are still available, most in new packages. Cheap plastic kits will be with us for a long time, and for the modeller willing to ignore instructions, mess with a perfectly good kit, and practice painting and weathering skills, they will continue to provide raw materials for unique buildings better suited to a layout theme than the originals..
     Out of print, but recommended if you can find a copy. ****

     J. R .R. Tolkien. Smith of Wootton Major (1967; 2nd edition 1975) Illustrated by Pauline Baynes, a distant connection through an aunt. That’s why I bought the book, a very handsome object, beautifully printed on heavy paper. The story itself feels like an experiment in folktale, with its chronicle-like stringing together of events, minimally sketched characters, and matter-of-fact assumption of magic and Faery as realities.
     At a feast of the Great Cake a boy swallows a Faerie star, which not only gives him a talent for singing, but grants him access to Faery, which he visits regularly. The cook’s Prentice is implicated in all the major events, guiding the human actors into making the choices that are best for them, and for Faerie too.
     I enjoyed reading the book. The black and white drawings are well done, but lower the production values of the book-as-object. Apparently, the publishers didn’t think it worth the cost of commissioning colour. No doubt a collector’s item for the Tolkien fan. It merits its own entry in Wikipedia. ***