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 | BACK IN THE BANTHA SADDLE AGAIN! |
| leslie
Monday, August 30, 2010 2:23:16 PM |
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We've been quiet a long time! well, now we're spiffying up the site, releasing art through several different channels, and Andrea is working on much to promote and expand awareness of John's importance to the world of cinema. We're doing what we can as well, and hopefully we'll have most of his originals on our gallery site soon. that's www.artinsights.com...
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| SAD ABOUT JOHN, TOUCHED BY THOSE WHO LOVE HIM |
| leslie
Friday, February 08, 2008 3:29:18 PM |
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wow. the many fans and friends of John's the world over are reeling from the news that he died unexpectedly on wednesday afternoon. i had just gotten an e-mail from him about an art forum in LA, where he was to be a featured artist and do a big presentation. he was really excited about it and we were looking forward to hanging out. he signed his e-mail as he always did "ATTA"-- always three there are--, because i'm french and i kiss close friends on the cheek three times hello and goodbye. it's a custom he loved and embraced with me at our gallery.
now, i think of that last writing, and i have such a feeling of luck and joy at having been such close friends with him, and that that was the last thing he said to me. atta...
andrea and he were such an amazing team, still individuals, and always very loving towards each other, we went out to a wonderful dinner the last time i saw him to a fabulous restaurant near DC, they sat us in a place of honor, we had a great time, spent hours there. i never heard anything but high praise and loving words from him about her. (and vise versa) He loved Farah completely (i'm sure you guys know his nickname for her "cake" is hidden in lots of famous film posters...) so, i feel like, apart from his great success as an artist, he had a life of love--which is the greatest success, really.
meanwhile, the fans! so many great stories and memories of John taking time, inspiring them, becoming friends with them--love reading them. please if you haven't sent your experience with John or with his art, send us an e-mail and we'll put it on the site. We've gotten many thousands of hits in just the last day, and many people are writing me saying how much they appreciate reading other people's experience with him, and also i know his family really loves seeing how important he was to so many people around the world...
John would be so touched and pleased.
leslie
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| PIRATES FOR JOHN! |
| leslie
Friday, November 30, 2007 3:38:15 PM |
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clearly time does nothing to lessen my love of movies/art/and acting like a fool...our gallery chose Pirates of the Caribbean as our subject for the Reston Town Center holiday parade (in years past I've been the Queen from Snow White, Snow White--an error in judgement at best, but 5 year olds seem to forgive a lot--we've had the Grinch, and lots of other cool characters--thousands of people show up even though it's pretty small town...anyway, in honor of the amazing work John has done this year and to promote his limited editions etc., we all dressed up like pirates and walked the parade, i dragged my whole family into it (webmaster Jon was out of town, my dad was there but not pictured, which we'll put up on the events page when Jon gets back from galavanting to Disneyland...)
Jon did a fabulous poster for a festival in Santa Fe, and there's a small show of his work at the CJ gallery in Santa Fe starting this weekend.. December 1st...we continue to add new images to johnalvinart.com (that is to say, new to the site, some of them were done years ago and we've gotten images of them from fans/collectors/MOVIE DIRECTORS!!!) still have to put more info on the art in the site, but we have real jobs too (and pirates to impersonate, hey, i never said my real job was coalmining...i have a great real job!) so anyway, more info will show up eventually. and also, thanks to all the visitors to the site, sometimes we get hundreds a day, which floors me, and i know touches John Alvin, although this kind of love and appreciation is totally deserved!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! |
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 | John Alvin @ ArtInsights |
| PeterPan
Thursday, October 11, 2007 6:18:35 AM |
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Hey all :) Quick update.
John was at the gallery this past weekend and it was great to see him again!
I just posted up something about it from Leslie under Events and Shows along with some pics... I will probably be adding some more once I go through all of mine. |
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 | Hiya :) More Artwork |
| PeterPan
Tuesday, September 04, 2007 8:02:42 AM |
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Hi all,
It has been a very busy summer but now it is almost over :(
I just added about 25 new pieces of art that came directoy from John's archives! I can't tell you how great he has been about providing us with images of his work that would otherwise never have been available to show here.
There are still some more site features I want to add and hopefully I will get a chance to do so soon... Leslie will be at the Baltimore Comic-Con this coming weekend but sadly I can't make it :(
TTFN,
Jon |
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| SURVEYED, SURVIVED, AND THRIVED AT COMIC-CON |
| leslie
Wednesday, August 01, 2007 12:07:40 PM |
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oye! the crowds. the costumes. and the surprise Spock sightings!
The jury was out for a while if John was going to be at Comic-Con, of course no one would actually work it unless they absolutely had to (trust me, it's different when you work it! i swear it's impossible not to fry a few braincells in the process!) so he wound up staying home and painting his commissions and hopefully playing with his dog etc., and i went with Jon and checked out the lay of the Blade Runner land, as there was a panel, signing and general to-do about the new dvd release--including RIDLEY SCOTT being there, thank goddess i didn't run into him, i would have acted like a complete ninny. (i'm a director geek--just ask Frank Darabont!)
So as hoped and expected, John got rights and is releasing a new limited edition from Blade Runner, the piece sold originally for tons of money a long time ago, and now they have a new piece in two formats, paper and canvas, eminently affordable, got lots of buzz and excitement given there were people like Leonard Nimoy and Ridley Scott wandering around...
I stayed with a friend in La Jolla with a gorgeous view of the water so i could decompress when i came back from 9 hours of show--no, i didn't stay with Jim Lee...but i did see him as well as other artists i love and will be carrying originals by in the near future. Folks like John Alvin pave the way for other talented film artists to be successful! I'm finding more and more enthusiasm for the art of the film, not just movie posters! See, all you leaders who love John's art and movie art in general are creating quite the bandwagon.
It reminds me of when i started carrying animation art almost 20 years ago at another gallery (i was 5...ok, not really but let's pretend) and everyone was like "umm, do you have any real art?" things have certainly changed in the world of animation!
John is working now toward the show we are having on the weekend of October 6th. If you are interested in an original, let me know and i'll send you images from the show when we get them!
Leslie |
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| COMICON--just how many people can fit in one convention center??? |
| leslie
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 10:52:15 PM |
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Ok, running around and there's some amazing stuff here, bought some amazing art for my gallery tonight, the first night and you'd think that there wouldn't be so many people, it's wall to wall, makes me worry about tomorrow!
JOHN ALVIN BLADE RUNNER LIMITED EDITION RELEASED! so it isn't available at the show, but we'll have an image in the next few days, so stay tuned, it's 30 x 20, $450, and edition of 500. i'm so excited a lot of people who haven't been able to afford anything can get Blade Runner now!
will keep in touch about what else we see at this crazy freeforall.
leslie
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| COMICON CRAZE |
| leslie
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 3:23:29 PM |
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ok, yes, we'll be at Comic-Con, and i'm very excited! It turns out John won't be going to London to CE, the whole thing got really complicated, he always has tons of work to do, and then there are some major positive grumblings around Comic-Con in San Diego, (of which i cannot speak so ask me not, as Yoda would say...) Getting grumblings from many sources so i'll blog again when i know for sure what's happening, but maybe John will be there. We of the John Alvin site/ArtInsights will definitely be there to promote the site in particular and John in general.
I found some super cool extremely rare limited edition lithographs from the release of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast--images of which are on the "art work" section of the site--and we'll have some of them at our Alvin show in October, if you are interested, let me know, because i only found a very few.
Meanwhile we are gearing up for our show in October, which is the first time John will be creating new art for a show this year, and there will be some amazing Star Wars original art being shown there. Call me at the gallery and i'll give you a verbal sneak peek!
ok, gotta run, our gallery website needs lots of work so i'd better get on it!
leslie |
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| Happy Birthday! |
| PeterPan
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 8:57:15 PM |
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The site is one month old today! Doesn't seem like it has been that long since we published the site but it has been! It has grown alot since it's doors were first thrown open but there is still alot to do (the still delayed user accounts and posting ability to start... I think this weekend I should be free and work is FINALLY calming down enough that I should be able to spend the time to make the code improvements needed for this). To celebrate the site's 1 month birthday we added some more new artwork and also posted a very nice note from John about the site. We are so glad you like the site so much John!
A few stats...
Currently there are 285 pieces of John's work available for viewing here... that is a lot! There is still more coming and we are still looking for more!
Since opening we have had over 600 visits from ~350 visitors (glad to see so many people coming back!) from every continent except South America (and Antarctica but I don't think that really counts =p). |
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| LORD OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS |
| leslie
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 9:40:55 AM |
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John is indeed Lord of LOTR, well, interpretive art-wise anyway. As you know he has the rights to the fine art limited editions representing the movies. And they either have now or are about to have an interview with him on the biggest LOTR website--
well several new pieces are finally out in giclee on canvas, "The Kiss", and "The Fellowship", (both of which i'm proud to say i sold the original of!) and a long time ago right when they first released them i asked to have #3 of the APs (artist's proofs) --3 for obvious reasons--so i'm looking for the perfect fan to buy the whole set, right now i have them at the gallery to sell off of, these pieces are hand embellished by John himself--there are so far around 8 or 9 in the set--(sitting outside the gallery right now, can't get a good look at the wall they are all on!)
SO, if you are wanting something representative of John's work, embellished, #3 and are a big LOTR fan, i'm your gal--(Lady of the Lord of the Rings. haha, pretty sure Kate, Liv, or Miranda might want that title...) |
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| Disneyland/World exclusives |
| leslie
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 9:04:45 AM |
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Thought since i got a call from a lovely gal who had visited the NYC Disney 'stravganza store and saw a piece of John's featuring Beauty and the Beast, i should let you know part of the deal with John's work is since he has worked for Disney creating images for numerous movie campaigns, there are a few giclees he has created art for available only through the Disney theme parks...the two i know of are "Dead Men Tell No Tales", and "Beauty and the Beast".
Now, being an art gallery that can't get my hands on those pieces doesn't bother me a bit because anytime John is placed in Disneyworld/Land/Euro etc., it's good for his collectors and popularity in the general public. I can tell you 5 years ago very few normal folks (ie not in the entertainment industry, not avid "what's new and hot" collectors) knew his work was available for purchase or that he was responsible so so many great movie posters. Many of those from back then are my collectors and they're Kvetching about his prices going up because of course they want more art from him, but i remind them they have gotten lots already and they are still affordable for now!
Anyway, what a huge difference when his art started getting promoted at Disney! Suddenly all the couples where one of them wasn't on the "John Alvin buying page" got right on it--(for a while the more movie loving or artsavvy partner was doing A LOT of begging) so i have nothing but love for the Disney exclusives, assuming of course they don't ramp it up and leave nothing for the little guy.
So while it says "we can get whatever" that's almost totally the case except those two pieces--and of course the stuff exclusive to the Star Wars Shop, who we also love, because, well, it's the Star Wars shop, right? |
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| Some Updates |
| PeterPan
Tuesday, June 05, 2007 7:59:08 PM |
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Hi all... I just pushed some updates to the site... mostly behind the scenes stuff that makes the site easier to manage. I'm still working on the user accounts... work has been keeping me VERY busy so I haven't had much time to work on things I want to do for here; however, I now have everything done I wanted to have complete before tackling that so I should be making some progress on that this week/weekend.
On other site improvement notes... we continue to add more artwork so please check out the new things. We also have more waiting in the wings to add so there should be a steady steam of new artwork for the next couple of weeks. Still looking for more so if you have anything we don't have please send it our way.
Also... John stopped by earlier this week and tested out the "John's comments" feature to post something about one of his works which is very kewl (One of the aladdin pieces)... he is very busy I know so I'm not sure how often he will get a chance to add more comments but I think it is awesome to have his thoughts about his art so hopefully he will get more chances to do so in the future!
Anyway... bed time for me now that the code has been pushed and everything seems to work :) Hope everyone is enjoying the site and again if you have any comments please let us know! |
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| JOHN ALVIN ROCKS THE CELEBRATION! |
| leslie
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 2:56:12 PM |
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hi from whatever that thingie is that Luke floats in after almost dying in Hoth, (i.e I'm recuperating from Celebration) ok, don't send me a mountain of e-mail about what it's called, i'm a girl geek but do i really need to know that?
I had an amazing time there, John sold the lion's share of his limited edition, and Starwars.com bought out the rest of the edition, which is great news, and he also signed hundreds and hundreds of his official posters for the show, kindly and very sweetly i must say. Lots of fans coming by and either thanking him for all the beautiful posters in his career or learning about some of the ones they didn't know about, which was cool to see!
Artists from the artists alley came by, some just gave them a piece of their work as a thanks for inspiring them, and some bought his limited edition!
I spent a lot of time with Tsuneo Sanda, and i'm sure lots of you don't know his work because George buys most of what he does, so check out his website. Sweet man but he doesn't speak English (only Japanese) so we spoke for at least an hour through his translator!
I also spent some time watching Lawrence Noble creating an original sculpture of Obi-Wan. He has an original outside at Skywalker Ranch, and just did 2 cool images of the Warner Brothers characters Wile E. and Roadrunner. I walked away for a while and i'd come back and the same folks were still watching him sculpt!
There was a room filled with interpretive art of Darth Vader heads i took some pics of and there are a few examples on the Events page. They are all done by different artists, and John dug them, we all had different favorites.
Andrea (John's amazing artist wife!) and the girls of Chuck Jones Gallery (i was just there to promote the website, hang out with John and meet like minded movie art fans) helped John at the booth and check out the pic on the events page with John and Andrea and i in his booth getting excited about the Celebration. And there were lots of fans getting their art and posters signed and meeting John, and as Webmaster Jon said, do send us pics of you with John and we'll put them up!
There were all sorts of costumed characters around, i didn't take lots of pics of them, but as always there was Elvis Stormtrooper, who i love but even more so now because he got together with Gentle Giant and created a sculpture of himself where all the money goes to charity. We love that. Also i saw what looked like Nicole Kidman dressed as Leia (not really her, but hey, look at her!) and some amazing Queen Amadalas. (all the pics are on the Events page!)
All in all had a great time. We are still working on the site, (as well as mine which is about to be upgraded! www.artinsights.com) and if you have any comments or questions you can e-mail me at artnsights@aol.com. Especially if you are one of the people i begged to scan images of stuff they had of John's we don't have on the site!
Thanks to Acme Animation for the badge, (i was "snidely whiplash" all week, and me without my mustache..) Congrats to all the artists i met for their hard work and success with their fans both new and loyal, and i hope i hear from those of you i met about linking to this site or contacting me! And please remember we are just getting the site up and running so we'll eventually have an interview from John for the site and i'm still inputting images and writing about them so keep checking back!
leslie |
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| Look at all the hits... |
| PeterPan
Monday, May 28, 2007 6:25:14 PM |
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Hi all :)
I just talked to Leslie who is recovering from her trip to the Celebration. She talked about all great people she met and I hope some of you found your way here :) I know a good number of people are finding the site based on our hits... we have had visitors from every continent except Africa and South America so far! I found it kinda funny... I came back from seeing PotC and found we had gotten a hit from Singapore :)
I am busy making improvements to the site... a alot of the ones I have made in the last week aren't visable but they are good changes that will help add new features. After I finish up some more internal behind the scenes changes this week, the next major thing I will add is the abiltity for everyone to register. I will hopefully have that done by the end of the weekend. This will be the first step towards having places where everyone can post. We will eventually have fourms; however, before that I think we will add a "comment" area to each piece of artwork and movie where you can post your thoughts about it.
Speaking of Artwork I know Leslie asked some people to send images of any of John's artwork that we are missing here... please send me anything you might have (original art work, posters, pictures from trading cards with John's work, etc)... we would love to add as much of his work as possible. You can send it to me at webmaster@johnalvinart.com or if there are issues with that peterpanfan1953@gmail.com should work also :)
One further image request... if you have images of yourself and John together (him signing artwork for you or anything) and would like to have them posted please send those also. If we get some then we can add a new page to show them off.
Finally, if there are any suggestions about things to add to the site... please let us know also. |
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| Wow, This is no jedi mind trick, this is 50,000 dedicated fans! |
| leslie
Friday, May 25, 2007 9:54:30 AM |
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Yesterday was the first day of the Celebration, and John and Andrea have been meeting loyal loving fans of John's work and telling folks who didn't know whatall he'd done in the past about his career. They are selling the heck out of the limited edition and he is signing the hundreds and hundreds of official Celebration posters being bought at the Celebration store.
I'd love to blog forever because i'm having a great time, partially because i love Star Wars geeks and partially because i am one, (felt a little rediculous--and bone fide-- having to take 3 trips to my car with the SW stuff i bought)
These are real fans but also largely really smart and ingaged people who can carry on a real conversation, make no mistake. I'm proud to be one of them.
Meanwhile the artist alley is going gangbusters and i stood in line for 1 1/2 hours (which went fast i was talking to the artists and fans in line) and bought some great art by them, but also i was touched and thrilled to hear such glowing praise and awe when i mentioned John or John's work, and lots of them gave me something to give to him just as a thank you for inspiring them. (yes, artists aren't just sensitive, artists are cool!)
This site got picked up on the official Star Wars blog (i believe they said "great new site!!!") and Mike who is selling the official Celebration posters put cards out for this site for anyone who buys a poster (or wanders by) and 100s more are gone in a few hours. YEA! We really want input from the fans so do e-mail us with your experiences with John and thoughts about his work we'd love to put it in !
There are lots of originals at John's booth and fans are excited to see them and talk to him, last night on the bus to the hotel he had a line of little kids asking for his autograph that just about choked me up. He is so sweet to them! (plus of course he felt like a rock star!)
i'm already late for today's show and i have lots of pics to put on the site, so check back (hopefully we'll put them up Saturday night Sunday-ish) and i'll tell all about how it's been.
Okeydoke. off again into the abyss.
leslie
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| Celebration IV |
| PeterPan
Friday, May 25, 2007 9:11:24 AM |
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Well Leslie is at Star Wars Celebration IV
*grumbles about work preventing him from going*
Hopefully she will have time and an internet connection so we can get some first hand details about everything going on there. On a kewl note... we got a nice mention on the "Official Celebration IV" Blog |
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| Welcome! |
| PeterPan
Sunday, May 20, 2007 2:12:00 PM |
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Welcome to JohnAlvinArt.com!
This is Jon the webmaster/web-designer/developer/etc.
We hope you like the new site; however, please know that is very much a work in progress. In the coming weeks and months we will be adding more art, more information, and more features. If you have any feedback about the site please e-mail me webmaster@johnalvinart.com. Also if you have some piece of John Alvin's art that we are missing and would like to see it here let me know. Finally if you are a graphic artist that loves John's work and would like to help the site there are some icons I want to create but my graphics arts skills aren't quite as good as I would like them to be; however, the only thing I can offer you as 'payment' is credit on the "About Us" page.
I want to thank the wonderful Mr. Alvin for providing us a lot of images (some we don't think you will find anywhere else) and also Linda Jones Enterprises (LJE) for providing images and some other content. Not to mention John's art is what really makes this site look good!
Again if you have any comments, suggestions, or things you would like to see please let me know! |
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