Joey Nebiker ------Blog 3 - #5

I found a website that has an archived list of printmaking artist's. From there I just searched until I found work that was interesting or that I liked because I related somehow. The first artist I found was William B. Montgomery. His work is comprised of hand-pulled etchings and lithographs.

His claim to fame is reptiles. More specifically his portrayal of them as biologically correct and artistically stunning simultaneously. However it wasn't the perfect depiction of the reptiles that interested me in his work. There were a number of his pieces that confused me at first glance, and second, and third. For example in this piece, I look at it and wonder why there is a giant lizard attacking or scaring this woman? And the more I look at it and try to figure out it, the more I realize that I have no idea what it's supposed to mean. It's that confusion that attracted me to the work. It's titled "encounter with a lizard man", and it's just that, nothing more nothing less. Simple yet confusing. Not a million different things going on at the same time in order to confuse you, but a lizard man and a woman in a bathrobe. She's not looking at the lizard man, but it looks like maybe she want's him to stay away. It almost looks like she is avoiding him, and he is just trying to hug her. There's nothing overly scary about the lizard man and I wouldn't say he's attacking her by any means. The more I dive into it, the more I realize this work is so strange and unusual. This piece just makes me think, "I have no idea what's going on, but I like that".

Another piece that I had the same encounter with had no lizard this time, but was similar in that it had the same effect on me. This piece was titled "Limulus Christus". It reminds me of the qualities found in the Mona Lisa, the mood, the colors and the atmosphere to an extent. There's this lady in a strange hat, she appears to be from some previous time period, and probably royalty of some kind. It looks like maybe she was just sitting there getting her portrait painted with the background from the window to her left(your right). That all seems fine and then you realize, there's a horseshoe crab sitting on the table in front of her, and you wonder where the heck it came from and why it's there? Again its Montgomery and his ridiculous and ambiguous style. I stared at this one for a while just like the other and thought, how could those two things be related? Maybe they do coincide and I just have no idea why, but if my lack of knowledge is what draws me to this piece, then so be it.

There were a few others in his online collection that I found just as strange as the two pictured above. Montgomery has all of his art on sale for anyone interested in making a purchase.


Joey Nebiker