What usually happens then is that\u00a0someone I know in real life makes a reference to my writing, interpreting the content\u00a0in a way that tells me that they think they know more about me than I am letting on. Then I stop, because fuck you, you don’t know me just because I blogged about something. This perilous slip into self-consciousness affects the blatheriness of my blather, know what I mean? I think I like writing better when no one’s looking. I would keep a diary but, ugh, paper.<\/p>\n
AND ALSO. This is what happens when I want to write – I find out it’s been done. For example: I bought an Alphonse Mucha print from a thrift shop in San Jose recently. (Isn’t it great that all my conversation-starters are about buying things? I mean, 12 years of this blog and my schtick hasn’t changed, though many other things about me have. I see those hundred things I wrote about and stifle a hollow laugh.) We had a great breakfast, two of my friends and I, after visiting a comic shop they knew about in the area. We decided to take a walk in Downtown San Jose, mostly to\u00a0window-shop\u00a0around the\u00a0book and antique stores\u00a0that I had noticed when parking the car. So I saw this gigantic framed Mucha print in the store window. It said “$100” next to it, and I was tempted. The frame itself was a work of art, and the piece in question – which I later found out was called ‘La Trappistine’ – had everything one might want in a Mucha print. A gorgeous woman, a great Q-design (I will get to that in a bit), wonderful iconography, curlicue lettering – the works.<\/p>\n
Except the shop was closed.<\/p>\n
I tend to look at the brighter side of things in situations like this. “Ha, I saved myself $100”, I said. My friends offered to come pick it up later, but I knew that I would start giving myself a lot of reasons not to spend money. So I passed by, walked them toward their place, and\u00a0doubled back to my car. Longingly glanced at the Mucha again when I saw movement inside the store. Someone was inside! I waved, she waved back, and brought up a sign that she was writing on. It said “50% off all items”.<\/p>\n
Long story short, 15 minutes later (because of the walk to an ATM nearby), I was hauling a rather\u00a0heavy\u00a0frame back to my car. I had no idea of when it was printed – pretty sure it was not an original late 19th century print, but it was\u00a0just\u00a0<\/em>what I wanted.<\/p>\n And obviously it went up on the wall.<\/p><\/div>\n So that got me to thinking about why I had stumbled onto Mucha’s art in the first place, and I realized that it was – obviously – comics. I believe I had read an interview by Adam Hughes about his art nouveau influences way back when, and got around to looking up the Czech artist’s\u00a0work and realized that his influence on the comic-book\/illustration world\u00a0was formidable. Everyone from Terry Moore to Tony Harris, JH Williams to JM Linsner, Joe Quesada to Michael Kaluta have done their share of cover and interior designs inspired by Mucha’s distinctive flora-based border patterns and soft color palette.<\/p>\n![\"And](\"http:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/mucha.jpg\")
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