Alex Rydlinski: "Turbid North"

Special treat here with some absolutely badass art by a former student of mine: Alex Rydlinski was a rock star with pen & ink in drawing, and he doubles as a real one on stage with North Pole's Alaska's Texas' the Lower 48's best damn metal band Turbid North. Pure serendipity that he dropped in on the "intro to inking" day for the current beginning class - talk about one of the all-time best examples of pursuing a vision and pushing oneself to get better. And in this particular case, insanely so. Bonus flog of inspiration whenever you get to hold up a case-in-point and say "THAT'S what I'm TALKING ABOUT." And by that I mean the consummate satisfaction in seeing someone not just making their art - that's the easy part - but also making it connect with everything else in their life and making it work for you.

Epic scenarios rendered in pen and ink with some of the spiffiest stippling (+ light washes) I've seen in quite some time. As someone who, for example, frequently attempts to replicate the aurora borealis, a couple of these drawings made me drool in envy (not to be confused with the normal drooling). Think the demented offspring of Bev Doolittle meets MC Escher gone utterly insane after a long winter alone in tiny cabin above the Arctic Circle with nothing left except lots of time, ink and Bristol. But seriously, many of the tunes on the advance copy of "Orogeny" I've put on heavy rotation at the studio make for an ultimate soundtrack by which to make millions and millions of little damn dots. Or erase lots real fast, or wield an Xacto blade in terrifying new ways. Alex also scored me a set of laser prints, two of which are posted here by permission, that he's using for his design of the band's CD artwork: also shown above is a scan from the mockup of the CD booklet including lyrics, and the cover seen up to the left. 

Stylistically somewhere around the "tech death" subgenre of metal "Orogeny" will be Turbid North's second release, set for July 17th: add it to the list of stuff worth buying, even if this sorta music isn't your thing (warning: no accordion or banjo), then what the hell, pick up a copy just because of the cool art on the cover. 

Check out their website for tour & release dates + samples 

(also on YouTube and Facebook).