Brothers and Mothers

BROTHERS

and

BY GEORGE PELECANOS

INTRODUCTION

For a long time, I didn’t know Jim Blanchard by name, but I recognized his work. Back before the internet pretty much killed small-press arts/punk magazines, I’d see Jim’s illustrations and take note (Jim had his own punk rock zine, Blatch, which lived for fourteen issues). Also, he did a portrait of me for Your Flesh magazine many years ago that had an unusual background, a Jim Blanchard signature. But again, I didn’t know who the artist was at the time. It was online where I identified him and got deep into his illustrations and portraits.

Honestly, I can talk all day about movies, books, and music, but I don’t know how to write about the visual arts. Like many people, I just know what I like and find intriguing. Jim’s portraits are singular. You know, with one look, that they are his. The atten tion to detail is notable as is his aforementioned choice of background. In Brothers and Mothers, his book of portraits that you are holding in your hands, the range of his talent, and subject matter, is on full display. Here are movie stars, character actors, athletes, musicians, poets, dogs, and serial killers. Some are as sharp as photographs. Others, like that of Vince Lombardi, are unadorned. Still others are stylized. There is unbridled joy in the portrait of Muhammad Ali, a reflection back on us, because this is what we feel when we look at him. There’s an appropriate majesty in Jim’s Marvin Gaye. At the same time, in many of these portraits there is a shadow, a hint of sadness, a troubling darkness behind the eyes. No doubt Jim chooses his subjects because he finds something fascinating in them, not just in their faces, but in their work.

This is the kind of book, unlike others of its ilk, which you will return to again and again. The portraits yield up new surprises on each viewing and cover a wide range of subjects. Any collection that includes Sid Haig, Barbara Steele, Peggy Lipton, Don Van Vliet and Timothy Carey alongside Lee Marvin, Pam Grier, and Steve McQueen is special. Wear the grooves out.