I’m not a huge fan of abstract art. That’s why I was surprised to find Riley’s work so compelling, and I’m painfully aware the links I provide will express very little of the works’ incredible grace and sensitivity. One reason is scale. They are generally quite large, some as tall as six feet. The second reason is the dimensional quality of the work. He creates them by pouring resin over a huge wooden panel, allowing it to dry, and painting in oil before pouring the next layer and repeating the process. His flickr account contains close-ups that hint at the layered quality, but they don’t express the the way light filters through the paper thin layers of translucent resin. It’s best appreciated in the flesh, so to speak.

The whole experience was a surprising treasure in the midst of a beautiful weekend, and I’m grateful for it.

I heard of the book listening to Science Friday. I grew up on Curious George and love when art meets science, so I did a quick search in our local library system. Royal Oak and Ferndale didn’t have it, but thanks to inter-library loan I got my hands on it late last week.

When I first looked at his redrawing of each constellation (Figure 4) I thought, “Oh, this is how I learned the constellations. He must have popularized this.”

But I was wrong. He made it up.

It’s a great intro to stargazing; mostly practical, non-technical guides to recognizing the constellations. The end of the book has some technical details regarding astronomy but leaves out most of the math. He’s quoted in the book jacket, “What surprises me is that nobody has done it before.” Indeed.

I don’t often get too hot. I’d even use the term “rarely”, but when MichiganRadio.org says today’s 91º “feels like 99º”, I know what they mean. So I’m toughing it out this week, considering the AC would never reach into my office anyway. And I’m utilizing an advantage of working from home: working in your underwear. TMI? Too bad.

I added the labels by printing them backwards, making a laser photocopy, and transferring the ink to the drawing using xylene (a wonderfully toxic solvent/cleaner). The transfer came out far too light, so I used a 005 micron pen to trace the type by hand. It was the last detail I added to the finished drawings. The effect is perfect, and after a half hour my nerves had sufficiently recovered from the ordeal.

Let’s see. It’s a detective novel, in a foreign locale, steeped in foreign culture & folklore, and dealing with the murder of a messiah figure. Um… win, win, win, and win.

Add a handsome jacket design by Will Staehle. I don’t know book jacket designers aside from Chip Kidd, but Staehle has some other nice designs I found here.

You Moustache May:

1. Have / Grow a glorious moustache
2. Post one image per day
3. Participate in frequent shenanigans

You Moustache May NOT:

1. Go more than one week without posting.
2. Detract from your moustache with other overly prominent facial hair.
3. Be mean spirited, vulgar, or socially inappropriate.
4. Photoshop your images. Let’s keep it classy.

In addition to following these rules, I made Moustache May a personal project this year. My brother helped me build a stand that suspends a pane of glass between myself and the camera, and I’ve been creating a drawing each day and photographing the combination of myself and the drawing. My progress through May 16 is below (click to enlarge). Follow the madness and see full size images here.