FANTAST IN FOCUS: DARRAN ANDERSON Mythic cities, such as Atlantis and El Dorado, never really vanish. They’re as old as the human imagination itself and derive from ideas that are constantly evolving alongside humanity’s changing perceptions of the cosmos. The mind seems boundless, which means that any study of its ‘metropolises of fantasy’ is always…
FANTAST IN FOCUS: BECCA TARNAS Becca Tarnas’s research focuses on two of modernity’s greatest visionaries, J.R.R. Tolkien and Carl Jung. An alumna of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, Becca is currently completing her doctorate at the California Institute of Integral Studies in the Ecology, Spirituality and Religion program. She wears many hats. While playing the role of an Odysseus…
FANTAST IN FOCUS: OLGA SUVOROVA If the Renaissance masters suddenly rose from the dead and started their own art collective, their artworks would probably look something like Olga Suvorova’s paintings. Olga’s figures resemble Elizabethan monarchs. With proud, powdered faces they look forward, glaring in silent conceit. Their costumes are loud and iridescent, evoking the extravagance of a Venetian masquerade…
FANTAST IN FOCUS: JULIE DILLON Julie Dillon began her freelance career in 2006. Since then, her art has been published by companies such as Tor Books, Wizards of the Coast, and Oxford University Press. Along the way, she’s picked up a World Fantasy Award nomination and won a Hugo Award and Chelsea Award. She’s also…
ODD TRUTHS: THE CRYSTAL-HUNTERS OF CHAMONIX Would you scale a mountain and battle ice-storms for a geode the size of a baseball? It’s a daredevil’s dream. Not everyone can pull it off. Crystal-hunters are an unique breed of adventurer; part rock-climber, mineralogist, and collector. In Chamonix, where the rest of the world takes to the ski…
FANTAST IN FOCUS: MICHAEL PARKES Weaving dreams is no easy task, but Michael Parkes is no ordinary artist. His painted worlds— like Cirque du Soleil performances rendered as trompe-l’œil frescoes—are bold, fantastic, and utterly astonishing. Like a whirling, many-coloured vortex, they collectively suck the viewer into a twilight zone of symbols and secrets. Parkes, a winner…
FANTAST IN FOCUS: DARMON RICHTER In 2011, Darmon Richter stumbled upon some of Bulgaria’s fading national treasures. Amazed and intrigued at the Communist-era buildings and colossi across the country, Darmon set out to scour the land and describe the history behind the architecture in his photographs and essays. Now, in 2015, Darmon is just putting the…
In Mika Suutari’s images of Finland’s countryside, the ‘sound’ of silence peals through small-town farmhouses, rural cornfields, and starlit skies. I spoke with Mika to find out how he’s created the perfect pairing of solitude and beauty. As an aside, you might want to try viewing his photos with the following trailer music. You’ll be happy you did….
FANTAST IN FOCUS: J.W. OCKER Possibly Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest fan, J.W. Ocker is an accomplished author whose articles and op-eds have appeared in places like Atlas Obscura, The Rue Morgue Magazine, The Boston Globe, and The Atlantic. He also runs his own travel blog, O.T.I.S: Odd Things I’ve Seen, and has written two “Grimpendiums” focusing…
ODD TRUTHS: NOBLE DREW ALI, A JAZZ AGE PROPHET Timothy Drew (also known as Noble Drew Ali) rose to prominence in the midst of the Roaring Twenties, the era of bootleggers, speakeasies, and flappers. Although he was part of this milieu, Drew was destined to be the spokesman for what he saw as a spiritual answer…