Friday May 6th: Skulls & Daisies - Bell & Borror, Comics & Paintings
Skulls & Daisies is the first two person show of comics and paintings by husband and wife team Sarah C. Bell and Montgomery Borror. The show will feature works from Bell’s upcoming book The Urban Fairytales: Love Story, and works from Borror’s upcoming book, Quarantined, along with works by both artists from other projects.
Monty and Sarah met at a gallery show of comics and now, 12 years later, they’re married and showing their comics and paintings together.
Opening Reception: Friday, May 6th · 6:00pm
SARAH C. BELL is a graphic novelist, painter, illustrator and freelance book editor living in San Francisco. Her comix range from the wildly absurd, that will leave you chuckling for days, to the piercingly morbid. From deeply personal autobiographical pieces to the completely fictitious, all of her pieces hold a brutal honesty and sharp wit that create immediate bonds with the reader through caricature and a highly voyeuristic glance into the depths of one girl’s sweetly whimsical yet eerily honed dark mind. Her work has been described anywhere from sexy to deranged to narcissistic. She achieves this intimacy by using herself as the main character, and as she explained to me over coffee, “Even though many-or, most-of the things didn’t actually happen to me, or are imagined (although some stories are completely true), I think that using myself as the character gives me license to tell the stories in a more personal way. And, that for me, gives them more depth.”
Sarah is the author of La Nina: Urban Fairytales, the second volume of which is forthcoming. She Illustrated El Repelente (Or the Anti Nuke Antics of Anabela), a graphic novel by Jennifer Heath. She is the illustrator, co-publisher and co-editor for Baksun Books as well as the staff cartoonist for Absurdist Monthly Review, online literary magazine. She has been the recipient of five arts grants and her work has been exhibited in alternative to mainstream spaces, from galleries to cafe’s. Sarah has been published by UC Berkeley Press, Nerve House, Fantagraphics Books, Fairytale Review Magazine among others.
Currently, Sarah’s graphic essay, Nubo, can be seen in The Veil: Women Writers on It’s History, Lore and Politics and her short piece titled Bug Soup is awaiting publication in Peanut Butter, Gooseberries and Latkes: Writers Invent Creation Myths for their Favorite Foods. She is currently a Master’s candidate in Illustration at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco.
MONTGOMERY BORROR is the illustrator of Quarantined, a graphic novel written by Michael Moreci, and published by Markosia. Borror has just completed two short stories for The Sleepless Phoenix: Survival Stories, forthcoming in October 2010. His previous work includes the story “Nearest and Dearest” for Insomnia’s anthology title Layer Zero, and the new anthology 2012 Final Prayer, The Cold Blooded Chillers, from Heske Horror, in which Borror’s work appears, was the winner of the bronze Independent Publisher’s Award in 2009.
Borror’s work is kinetic and bloodthirsty. While violent and gory, it is also subtle in its use of line, color and value. Borror brings his fine art training to his illustrative work. The work is reminiscent of the old horror comic book artists that have inspired him since he was a child. Artists like Virgil Finlay, Bernie Wrightson and Neal Adams. His work is also heavily influenced by the imagery of writer H.P. Lovecraft.
The study of fine art, literature and music throughout his life taught Borror the value of emotionality in his illustrative work. While he works primarily in sci-fi and horror genres, Borror is unusual in that he strives to create a deep connection between character and reader. He understands the roles that social commentary and satire can play in his art and endeavors to cultivate these themes in his illustrations and paintings.
Borror studied fine art at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia before moving to Colorado where he studied under the private tutelage of Robert Venosa. He taught art to children and co-founded Project Art Studios with friends and fellow illustrators Pat Redman and Matthew Karasik. His work has been featured in various shows and galleries in the Denver/Boulder, CO area such as Think Tank (2008), Bad Art for Bad People at Bob White Gallery (2007), The Rock Art Show at The Project Studios (2006), Zanitha Gallery (2006) and Black & White & Read All Over at Axis Mundi Arts (1999).
They have a kitten named Bird.
Sarah Bell
Montgomery Borror
