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We start off our conversation with the man by listing some of his many achievements and career highs—so we won't do it again here. Just know that he's been at this for a while now and he's rocked it all (Google or Bing him, but make a sandwich first).
Dwight and I have been following James Gurney's work since the Dinotopia series and his book covers first started appearing some years ago. Imagine our recent surprise when James sent us an email out of the blue saying how much he enjoyed our podcast. We almost lost our sh*t! It was as if the Great Wall of China or the Colossus of Rhodes had written us a note.
We wrote back, kept the gushing to a minimum and planned to have him on the show soon. Well, soon is today, lucky listeners.
In the discussion, we cover as much as we can with this modern day Renaissance Man: his background, his life now in upstate New York, some of those career highs we mentioned earlier and his newest book, Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist.
We also get into his daily blog and why he started it, his travels around the world and we end things by posing a question—to which James offers the most interesting answer (hey, he's James Gurney, what else would you expect).
Our thanks to him for coming on with us. It was an art nerd's dream come true.
And a big thanks to our friend Paolo Rivera for his help in bringing it all together.
**For this episode, we played a snippet of The Police's song Secret Journey. A great tone-setter for the interview, although Jim's amazing journey has been no secret.
Also, a reminder about the current Dinotopia exhibition going on in Wilmington, Delaware.
Guys... I could kiss you for this interview... and so many others that you've made over the course of the show. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!
(Swain Re: Nana, you're so very welcome!
And if I were single, I might be tempted to accept that kiss. Provided you're a girl, of course---ha!)
Posted by: Nana | February 08, 2010 at 11:46 AM
Terrific interview guys!
Posted by: shawn | February 08, 2010 at 12:29 PM
what ever happened with the gun and the subway?
(Swain Re: Stay tuned to this blog, Yates.)
Posted by: yates | February 08, 2010 at 05:58 PM
Hey, just found your blog from James Gurney's- Excellent interview, guys! I'll definitely be listening to the archives. Keep up the good work.
(RE: Thanks Mark and welcome to The 'Nation.-Dwight)
Posted by: Mark Heng | February 09, 2010 at 04:39 PM
Just got the Imaginative Realism book.
Great recommendation.
Excellent interview as always.
Posted by: Christopher Soprano | March 02, 2010 at 01:56 PM
I just found your podcast and web site, and so far have only listened to the James Gurney interview--and I love it. I hope you can continue such good work. I think I'm going for the Mike Grell interview after that, and then after that who knows. I'll have to pick this up on my iTunes. You seem to ask the questions that I want to ask: influences, what their interest were when they were younger, and so much insight, big Thank You.
Posted by: William Wright | September 16, 2011 at 04:03 PM