So who's running the Creep Crypt?

Encased in a black musty smelling crypt 

below the bustling city sidewalk,

there I lay in the dank dark basement of death.

Surrounded by my only friends: 

a busty horned woman of pasty complexion,

ukulele playing hula zombies,

numerous decapitated decayed monkey skulls,

a bodiless oracle with nothing to say,  

and tiny creepy monsters who scream out to be heard.

Above my head dangle generations of ancient cobwebs 

crisscrossing the worm-eaten rafters.

Yet in this undesirable environment

visitors pass by my silent grave and gawk 

at the mysteries that are before them.

They stare at me thinking I am dead 

and that my friends are to be pitied

for their morbid state. 

They do not perceive that I am alive 

and that my friends will be following them home. 

For a visit to the crypt cellar is never over.

 HA HA HA SEE YOU Oct 5th 12-10pm

A Nice Surprise!

Yesterday I was made aware that the gallery was chosen by readers of About Magazine to be their favorite gallery in the area. Gracious thanks to all the readers and About Magazine for making my day! Nothing like putting imaginative realism in your office, home or wherever. If a piece of illustrated art makes you laugh, think, question, imagine, be entertained or satisfy the need to collect it for the future, then you've got the art bug. 

As a artist friend of mine said; "work is the bread of life, but art is the wine of life". 

Thanks again and I hope you keep loving the gallery and the work of these talented illustrators,
Rhonda

Fantasy art made her day

Image ZOAS Wyrm of Sapience by Aaron Miller 

Every week or so a visitor comes into the gallery to check out whats new. The visitor is very careful with money and rightly so, because there's not much to go around, I would guess. Today was a wonderful day for this visitor when upon finding a print of a dragon by the MTG artist Aaron Miller, a huge smile broke, eyes lit up, and words bursted out with excitement, "I'll take it"! 
 Aaron... if you ever read this blog I'd like you to know your artwork made my visitor and myself very happy.

I love the work I do in the fantasy and imaginative realism art world, if fact I'm listening to John Williams' music as I write. What a genius! John and Aaron you're making my day.

Well what do you know, people can like football and art. Who'd a thought!

 Most of my friends know that I love the work I do, running an art gallery, in a relatively small city in Northeast Ohio. Canton has some very good things going for it and it appears we might be getting more noticed with the expansion of The Pro Football Hall of Fame.

 On that note, a man and his son from New Jersey, came into the gallery after visiting the land of   "football giants". They were told to come downtown, yeah,  which is what all of us want to see happen ...lots of out-of- towner's coming to visit our downtown galleries and shops. 

Of course we conversed about the artwork here and he asked me if I ever carried artwork  from the book, DUNE. When the anniversary edition was published by Folio Society he had purchased a piece of the original artwork from the illustrator but couldn't remember his name. So....I immediately went on a search and found the exact painting he had purchased from the fabulous  artist, Sam Weber. He was delighted and very proud to tell me it was hanging in his living room. (Now you have to imagine this is a picture of a giant worm coming out of the clouds)

On his way out of the gallery he said,  "well ...so far The Football Hall of Fame is #2 and IKON IMAGES is #1."     Who'd a thought? :)

A Teaching Day

Today has been an interesting day in the gallery. Had a young couple with their family come from about an hour away.  They always come in when they are in town. Future patrons I hope, certainly lovers of the arts, which makes me happy:)

Then a grandmother brought in her grandson to have him experience the art and galleries downtown. He didn't quite understand that this was a store to purchase art. So my "teacher personality" came out and we had a 45 minute lesson about the different aspects of what's here.   Both of them found themselves enjoying the current exhibition, "Forever Fairytales" He had a great time identifying the stories that went with the pieces. What was hard for him is that he wanted these pieces to be the same pieces he had been accustomed to seeing in books and movies. That's  when the teaching came into play.  I explained that each artist has their own idea for a particular story. Then I saw a light bulb go off in his head....these images were done by different artists! Sounds simple I know, but I feel it was a true learning experience for him about the creative minds of illustrators and how each one brings a different image, but the same story, to the page. Satisfying for me, him and his grandmother!

Coming soon to the basement of the gallery... The Creep Crypt

I've been thinking about this for sometime. The basement of my 1919 building is a perfect, and a bit scary, place for  monsters, creatures, and all around creepy artwork and fun. Only open on the first fridays of each month from 6-10pm.
Remember that lovely saying from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome  "2 men enter and 1 man leave"?  Well it's not quite like that but I've always loved that line!

Remember you can only get in from 6-10 every First Friday of the month! Mark your calendars, first opening June 1st.

I'll miss those wonderful artists of Pyre but who are these guys???

So I'm packing up the my last exhibition Prye | The Art of Ritual today and trying to figure out what the next show will look like. I'll miss those fabulous dark art images and creature sculptures. But... I know all of these wonderful artists that I ask to exhibit here at IKON will be creating more wonderful imagery and ideas for me to bring to you.

Regarding the next exhibition "Forever Fairytales. Timeless Fables of Olde; part of it is an interactive question and answer display.  SOOOO, here is the 1st question from this fabulous tale; Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs? Were did these 7 names of the 7 dwarves come from? 

1. Blick, the eldest of the seven
2. Flick 
3. Glick 
4. Snick 
5. Plick
6. Whick 
7. Quee, the youngest "boy"

Banner image(c) Poison Apple by Chris Seaman

OMG Charles Vess is coming to NE Ohio

Banner cover image(c) Dominic Harmon 2012 for "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin

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As an illustration gallery owner  I am so excited to meet Charles Vess and to see his original illustrations  based on Ursula K. Le Guin Earthsea series. Opening April 7th Massillon Museum will exhibiting his original work from, The Books of Eathsea, coming out in the fall of 2018.  I hope he can stop over to see IKON while he's in town. I'm pretty sure he knows the artists hanging here!

Charles will give a lecture on his inspiration behind the drawings as well as a live illustration demonstration. 

Lion’s Lincoln Theatre, 156 Lincoln Way E, Massillon, OH 44646

Free/Public/No Reservations; Doors open at 6:30 pm

Exploring fairytales in the cold.

So today has been rather quiet in the gallery except for the fact I smelled something burning as I came in and turned up the heat and turned on the lights. Ugh, ok... first thing I thought of was how do I keep all the art safe? 
So I called the maintenance man and 3 hours later, after checking and rechecking wiring and  the furnace it was determined to be a faulty blower on the furnace. Dirty old thing has been shut off til a furnace man can get here. 
In the meantime I am sitting here with my winter coat on, and typing up the next copy label for the next exhibition to open "Forever Fairytales, Fables of Olde." Love finding out the history of these things and the fact that every civilization has tales of our human condition. Somethings never change!

Here's to a warmer tomorrow.