Caren Anderson

Beautiful book lushly printed with an actual flocked black velvet cover decorated with high-gloss paper stock. This book is a true tactile delight.

A labor of love for a genre embraced by ironic hipsters. Lots of paintings from unknown artists, probably thrift scored. Includes interviews with Mexican artists, etc. about the surf lifestyle back in the day when black lights were big.

Sadly no sunset or shipwreck or many examples of poker playing dogs.

Extra points for the Vietnam era big-eyed sad poetical soldiers writing home. I'd never seen such a thing and found them oddly touching even though I dislike big eyes and poetry both.

Includes a brief how-to section and also Elvis, clowns, naked ladies, tough cowboy guys, war is hell, big eyes, blaxplotation ladies and South Sea hula girls, and a lotta lotta unicorns, which sold very well, apparently.

Great fun. I only wish I had the talent to create the mash-up ultimate black velvet painting I've always wanted to see:

Elvis, dressed as a matador, faces a weeping big-eyed bull. In the background, a blazing sunset and a wrecked ship out in the harbor, in the foreground, the audience full of clowns and cowboys and noble Indian warriors, zeppelin boobied naked ladies with lots of flowers and unicorns while a group of dogs plays poker and ignores the whole thing. Wouldn't that be cool? (Hope I didn't forget anything there...)… (mehr)