The crazy beautiful artwork of Ryder E. Robinson. Growing up I was taken with Medieval artifacts of sorts. Something about the macabre romanticism of the time really captured my imagination. At every opportunity I would take the time to antique whatever I was creating (many tea bags, red sealing wax, and an open flames later, my parents gave up steering me towards more child friendly crafts). I've always loved the crinkling sound of old parchment and papers, and the look of sun faded books. One of my prized possessions is an old watermarked, tattered hardcover of ee cummings' poems that I found at a second hand bookstore in Maine one summer. Robinsons illustrations have caught my eye for all these reasons, and then completely blew me away with his attention to detail. The axe handle, the rope binding the cross, the detail of the broken jaw - but most of all, the ease which permeates each illusration. Despite the incredible amount of detail and precision, each image comes across as simple and effortless - almost as if he were just doodling offhandedly after peering through the fadded glass of someones cabinet of curiosities.
