Lorelei

In the 1980s there was a singular looking woman engaging in panhandling at Yonge and Eglinton. Although she had the facial demeanor of a street person she wore a leather jacket, grey flannel trousers, carried an Esprit bag and had seemingly “done” hair. She stood with one hand out croaking the words “Two bucks!” … this in the days of a typical donation being closer to one or two quarters and several years before the advent of the twoonie. My assistant J. Harrison Shannon dubbed her Lorelei (he was much better at finding the most appropriate mythological equivalents than I was). He said he original Lorelei was a siren who lured boats and their crews to their doom on the rocks. I did a study of our Lorelei (with hand, hair, leather jacket and Esprit bag) luring the unsuspecting to their fates. Standing up to her knees in the roiling waters. With some suitably ominous rocks jutting out of the swirl. And then the Pogues included a song called “Lorelei” on one of their albums. Cosmic bliss. “Two bucks!” Wonder what ever became of our siren?

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Scott Symons Remembered

In about 1970, when Walter Yarwood, a founding member of Painters Eleven and a well-known sculptor, was the art director at M&S, it was determined that Scott Symons, Walter and I would have a working lunch to discuss Scott’s forthcoming coffee table book, Heritage: A Romantic Look at Early Canadian Furniture.

We went to the restaurant at the Inn on the Park in Toronto, but were stopped at the door when the maître d' caught a glimpse of us. Scott was wearing a sloppy sweatshirt with a two-headed bird pendant and crumpled pants, Walter was wearing his ubiquitous iridescent blue windbreaker (which set off his ruddy complexion) and I was in my usual casual dress of the day.

Walter and I were ready to turn tail and head for the nearest greasy spoon, but not Scott, who turned to the Maître D’ and said, “I am THE Scott Symons, this is THE Walter Yarwood, THE David Shaw and we are here on business for THE Jack McClelland ... so please seat us in your restaurant.”

The Maître D’ must have been taken aback for he gave us each clip-on ties to wear. So we entered looking like a trio from another planet with our incongruous ties. We were seated in a corner away from the rest of the clientele, which was just as well when Scott rose to toast us with wine he had poured into the ice ring that his vichyssoise had arrived in.

Anyone overhearing our conversation would have had little idea that a book on furniture was being discussed as Scott regaled us with tales of “group gropes” in gay bars and other lurid stories.

After lunch, we returned to the office, where I designed some rather phallic-looking ornaments to set off the book’s text pages and chose a very erotic close up image of a table or chair to feature on the title spread. The book got an honourable mention in the Look of Books competition of 1972. It was good to see Heritage remembered in Sandra Martin’s obituary of Scott – one of the more interesting authors I ever had the privilege to work with.


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Beavers and Gators and Moose (Oy Vey!)… with an Elephantine Garnish

Over the years there have been a number of beasties that have gotten themselves firmly enmeshed in my bonnet. I’m going to commence with what is likely the most ubiquitous…

The Beaver (Castor canadensis)

This semi-aquatic rodent is the national beast of Canada. It is a most industrious creature which fells trees, builds lodges and workable dams and thoroughly confused Europeans who learned about them from returning explorers when they described the wonders experienced in the New World. Beavers were once widely trapped for their fur – used to cover hats for the gentry.

            Beavers are probably one of the most iconic symbols of Canada (vying for first place with the maple leaf). They even appear on our 5¢ coins. Because of my location I seem to have worked on an inordinate number of Canadian books over the years. With beavers and maple leafs (as we say in Toronto) figuring prominently on the covers and jackets.

The Maple Laugh Forever (a humorous poetry compilation) featured a beaver riding in a bathtub which was attached to a Canadian flag dirigible … and there were many more drawings of beavers contained therein.

Colombo’s Little Book of Proverbs, Graffiti, Limericks and Other Vital Matters had a large beaver reading a small version of the same book that he was on the cover of.

René Lévesque Buys Canada Savings Bonds & Other Great Canadian Graffiti had an industrious graffiti artist beaver in overalls brandishing a ladder, a paintbrush and can of red paint.

There were probably many more that I’ve forgotten. I did a celebratory beaver for a cover of Hurtig’s 1988 catalogue … bursting out of a set of The Canadian Encyclopedia Mk II. And I started a series with a character named Jake the Beaver with writer Peter Lowry … but it never quite made it to fruition.

Alligators (genus Alligator)

I have always been fascinated by this large reptile of the crocodile family. Never quite made it to the Florida Everglades to see them in their proper habitat though on my first visit I returned with a small stuffed one … at least there was no chance of it finding its way into Toronto’s sewage system.

            I got heavily into drawing alligators when I started doing an annual charity fundraiser called Jambalaya for something named Windfall. I figured Jambalaya was from the Deep South and that was where gators came from (if they weren’t mentioned in the Hank Williams classic — they should have been). I did these for a few years … the last one was a drag queen gator. After that they dropped me for budgetary reasons (something I thought was very odd as I’d been doing the work for free).

            And lest we forget: Theo & Sophy!!! One evening at a drama club dinner I was scribbling on my napkin (as is my wont) when I drew a baby alligator hatchling with an avian hatchling on his snout … everyone who saw it agreed that it was keeyute! Later I decided they were named Gabe and Burt. I worked up a full colour version hoping it might gain me some gainful employ but instead I got involved with a very bad news collaborator. At some point we rechristened the critters Theo and Sophy (in a nod to the theosophists) and we started to concoct a story. Unfortunately my unnamed collaborator became obsessed with religion and wanted me to draw 12 baby alligators (one for each of Christ’s apostles though I saw no reason for allocating one to that creepy Judas character) … I actually did a colour rendering of this but didn’t like it at all. And the bird became a baby flamingo. The story became much too much like Anderson’s Ugly Duckling and our publisher went belly up just after my collaborator had an argument with him over the quality of the writing (which was pitiful). My so called collaborator threatened to sue me if I did the book without him (which I found interesting considering it started as my idea upon a napkin). We no longer communicate. Good riddance. And one day I may revive the characters.

Moose (Alces americana)

Never drew many mooses until I arrived at the offices of the Independent Order of Foresters about doing a cover for them. I looked at their business card and figured out that the non-descript metallic gold blob of their logo was in fact a MOOSE. I persuaded them that they should start featuring a moose on their in house magazine covers. There followed a moose with Pegasus-style wings on skis, one in Mexico looking like a piñata with a Spanish inscription and several more. I was usually riffing off their display type … one referred to prospecting and before you could say Gold Rush I had drawn a pack moose with a wily prospector. One day I asked them what the Foresters were selling and was told “insurance” … hmmm … maybe what I’d been drawing wasn’t all that appropriate? Anyway my contact left and her replacement wasn’t interested in any more moose being plastered on covers or anywhere else apparently.

            My last fling with a moose was part of a series for children’s clothing … I did a number of moose and bear studies … including a hockey playing moose … but this went precisely nowhere. No idea if any of it ever went into production. The artist was never compensated. So it goes.

Elephants (Elphas indicus and Loxodonta africana)

I used to be more obsessed with elephants than ever I was of alligators and crocodiles. One of the first things I got to do in my first job was a catalogue cover with an elephant front and centre. But when I started trying to introduce them on book covers the drawbridge came down. The first time I encountered this prejudice was a book about Africa … I eventually was allowed a couple of tiny giraffes. When a new poetry book called Nail Polish by the venerable poet Irving Layton inspired me to submit a circus elephant with painted nails rough … the cries of derision could be heard all along Hollinger Road … refection followed. When I submitted a friendly pachyderm playing a snare drum for an ideas book for drama called A Different Drummer Jack McClelland swept it aside with some comment about it being an insult to drama students. I pretty much gave up at that point. None of the books I designed for Mel Hurtig suggested a need for an elephant. They weren’t very Canadian.

            And then I got to do Sharon, Lois and Bram’s All New Elephant Jam … I was able to put elephants on practically every page! I even put one (with a tuba and a jar of jam) on the cover together with photographs of the authors … hmmm … and a crocodile playing a kazoo! That wasn’t the last croc either. (The idea of combining crocodiles with elephants probably has something to do with that fable about how the elephant got its trunk.) That pretty much got that obsession out of my system … the elephant part anyway.

Bonus: Dragons and Dinosaurs!

I used to love drawing dinosaurs when I was in grade school.  Even won a prize in Don Mills once for a Tyrannosaurus and a Brontosaurus (though my dad helped me to ink them in somewhat).

            It all came back to me when I started working up some dinosaur kid’s book projects in the 1990s. Somewhere in there I got to illustrate a book called I Hate Dinosaurs but that’s slightly off topic. And the fire fighting dinosaurs led to fire breathing dragons but we never took anything far enough to bother showing a publisher our brilliance. Around 1996 I remembered a pair of pterodactyls named Pterry and Ptilly and decided to attempt something on my own with them. I decided an alphabet book had possibilities and proceed accordingly. Pterry and Ptilly were time travelers who managed to find themselves on a pirate ship. I actually did all the legwork for the book but found publishers were getting sick of alphabet books. So I ditched the pterodactyls and added my two Scottie dogs (Pippa and Lucy) and a shipload of very scurvy rats (known throughout the Seven Seas as PiRatts©) into the basic pirate milieu … still working on this off and on … time sure does fly when you’re having fun.

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Clayton B. Ashley

In the early 1970s at McClelland & Stewart the editors and designers had several different ways of keeping the cobwebs cleared out. One method was the semi-regular cheese and wine party. Now in these days we had a couple of ancient Underwood typewriters in the design department for memo writing. But at our parties these became grist for free form poetry creation and we needed a name to credit this madness to … thus was Clayton B. Ashley birthed. There is some question as to what the B. stood for … some say Beresford (possible as that was the name of one of my art college teachers) while others say Bermondsey after the roadway which lead to M&S's Hollinger Road. Whatever. Ashley was very prolific (the cheap Hungarian wine and fine cheeses helped). He was credited with writing a couple of non existent books … The Leather Community in Canada and Plaza Paintings of East York … and many poems and memos. He was even a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. He has been written about by V. John Lee in his recent memoir The Cardboard Jungle. But Ashley was lacking a face … until that benevolent day when a Leonard Grove phoned M&S and asked who that guy was that we kept using on his father's books (his father being famous canadian author Frederick Philip Grove. So we rectified the M&S photo archives (thanks to photographs supplied by the author's son) and now had a photograph of the Unknown Author … which immediately became the Only Official Portrait of Clayton B. Ashley (see attached image). End of story? Not quite. I retired Ashley once I ascended to the post of Art Director … the department had been cut back and there wasn't time for such tomfoolery. But one day Canada Post were doing a commemorative stamp of Frederick Philip Grove and they made the fatal mistake of using one of the old M&S Grove books as reference … thus was made flesh the Clayton B. Ashley first day Canada Post issue. Here is a sample of Ashley's poetry:

Wumbletime on the Farm

See the joyous chickadee
See the wondrous chicken flea
They all dance 'round the Wumble tree
It's Wumbletime on the Farm!

Art director Don Fernley was so taken by this verse that he named his farm in Pickering after it … Wumble Farm. Gone but not forgotten.

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Duvidoodles

At long last I have taken the plunge to start blogging about in Cyberspace. Talk about a long time in the making … I became a hardcore Luddite back in 1989 and soon became the best kept secret in Canadian publishing having gone from art director at McClelland & Stewart to design/production consultant for Hurtig Publishers (which included handling the design of The Canadian Encyclopedia in 1985) to persona non grata (aka illustrator) without even trying. Then in 1999 I awoke and decided I may have made a Big Mistake … so I got everything I needed to set up an electronic studio … did that for a couple of years and decided maybe I'd made an even Bigger Mistake. But I'd kept pencils, pens and other manual art supplies … good thing too as they are becoming as scarce as proverbial hen's teeth to find nowadays. So today is the first day of the rest of my blog … the art part can be found at the link below....

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