1992 - 04/1992 Meeting

Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Updated: 10/27/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 01/30/08.

BRYN BARNARD

The artist's website is: http://www.brynbarnard.com/html/frameset.bio.html.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: April 11, 1992.

Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 33.

Meeting Program: Slide show and talk by science fiction artist.

Notes:

These meeting marked the commencement of a shift to the Methodist Church as our normal meeting site. Although the Association had used the Church as a meeting site in the past, it was normally occasioned by the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center having a scheduling conflict with two groups desiring to use the facilities at the same time.

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The April meeting of the S. F. A. B. C. marked the formal start of an extensive menu of pre meeting activities. Held in the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church on Saturday, April 11, 1992, the club made use of the facility to hold a STAR TREK gathering, a games area, and two writers' group meetings beginning as early as 2:00 PM.

As expected for a first time event, turnout ranged from moderate to light. A dozen people from the U. S. S. Intrepid 2 held a meeting which began a little late, ended a little late, but was deemed satisfactory by those members of the crew I spoke to. After their meeting was over, a sketch from the show IN LIVING COLOR, "STAR TREK: The Wrath of Farrokhan", was shown.

Charles Garofalo, Christopher Nash, Patricia Nash, and newcomers Evan Johnstone and Liz Powell Lynch attended the early ( 2:00 - 5:00 ) writers' group. Chris read a story by Evan, "Fins," and Liz read "No More Monsters" by Chuck.

Douglas Finch, Elizabeth Grout, Jeanette Kappler, Maxine Kappler, Liz Powell Lynch, and Susan Richter formed the nucleus of the later writers group. Robert Kappler, Joel Ryerson, and several others were also present on an unofficial basis for greater or lesser amounts of time. Susan read the first four chapters of a story by Jeanette titled, "The Green Dane." Doug read his own tale, titled, "O Rats."

Attendance for these events could have been better, but it was considered a promising start. Less successful was the gaming section, although this was not unexpected. Time will tell.

Philip De Parto, Steve Gold, and the La Barre brothers joined Bryn Barnard for dinner at El Torrito's on Route 17. Topics of conversation included the artist's experiences in southest Asia and John La Barre's adventures in historical recreationism.

After STAR TREK, THE NEXT GENERATION was over, the meeting was called to order. Steve Cardois, Ben Ellison, Robert Hepperle, Joan Higgins, and John Imhoff won door prizes, the usual announcements were made, and then Bryn began his slide show.

The meeting began when Philip De Parto read an introduction to Bryn Barnard allegedly written by artist Tom Kidd. It detailed Mr Barnard's early days as a kelp harvester, his subsequent escape from Serbia, and his lifelong pursuit of his artistic dream of becoming the man who paints the white ring on whitewall tires. This came as very much a surprise to Mr Kidd who strenuously denies the authorship, claiming that he would have done a much better job slandering his fellow illustrator.

Mr Barnard brought down two trays of slides, seven or eight paintings, and a few prints. The bulk of his talk and slide show consisted of work done while living in southeast Asia. The details on how advertising is planned when numerous different languages, religions, and cultures coexist in the same marketplace was extremely thought provoking.

There were a series of striking paintings done for Star Beer, for example. Star is the local brand name for Heiniken. Since the movie STAR WARS was being released in Indonesia around that time, and since astrology plays a very important part in the lifestyle of most people there, the artist was hired to do a dozen paintings in a techno-organic mode. As few people read, and fewer still have television, advertisers create product awareness through an item found in everyone's home--a calendar.

The three paintings I enjoyed the most were "Ten Thousand Sails," "Rock and Water," and "Steel Head Rainbow." "Ten Thousand Sails is a painting of a spaceship being propelled through space by the solar wind. In "Rock and Water," a work done for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, a cratered asteroid is just beginning to eclipse Earth, an occultation which presages the collision which will wipe out the dinosaurs. "Steel Head Rainbow" is a dead serious translation of a pun on the trout's name into the medium of illustration. It depicts the metal skin of a robotic trout being peeled away to expose a flesh and blood fish beneath.

The talk accompanying the show was interesting both from the point of view of an artist describing his work and as someone who has lived abroad for a number of years in a culture which is very different than ours. Pat Nash, for example, was quite happy to pick up some details of life in a multi-cultural society since she is writing in just such a milieu.

After the meeting was over, about twenty of us ambled over to the Horizon Diner and were joined by the Kapplers (who had left earlier in the afternoon to fulfill a family obligation).

The Association welcomes newcomers Steve Carrdois, Dennis Grey, John Imhoff, Evan Johnstone, Elizabeth Powell Lynch, and Dee Mc Laskill to our company.