Wednesday, May 13, 2009

G.P. (Golden Palm)

The letters “G.P.” are hidden in many of my science fiction paperback covers from the 1980s.

The letters stand for the Golden Palm, an apartment building that I shared with many other Art Center students.

Many of them have gone on to become well known in comics, illustration, and painting. They include Paul Chadwick (Concrete), Bryn Barnard (Writer, Illustrator, Muralist), Thomas Kinkade (Painter of Light), Ron Harris (Crash Ryan), Alan Munro (Visual FX), Mark Verheiden (Writer), and David Mattingly (Animorphs Illustrator).


We all called ourselves “GP-ers,” and we got together for sketch groups, field trips to movies and museums, and art-themed potlucks.

I’ll send a free Dinotopia map to the first person who correctly names all of the covers from which the details above are excerpted.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Can the artist be bribed? Any of those a Philip Dick novel?

Jeff Z said...

HA! I know the top right one anyway. Hey, that's not only one of my favorite SF books, but one of my favorite SF book covers too! Didn't know you did that one. Awesome!

I have a bunch of concept sketches of other items from that particular book hiding somewhere...

I don't know any of the others, so won't spoil it. :)

Unknown said...

What was Thomas Kinkade like in school?

Unknown said...

Thats awesome haha. im going there in the fall!

Erik Bongers said...

Well...I found at least 2 of these covers on the James Gurney website under illustrations. Perhaps even three...

Super Villain said...

haha, contest is over, i got all five,

#1 were the wild things are
#2 harry potter and the socerres cup
#3 norm from cheers
#4 super fun happy chef
#5 the lion the witch and the overalls

Unknown said...

When I was in college, they called us the Pinecrest 6th Floor Mutants.

Anonymous said...

Thats pretty amazing but not shocking that you came from such great company!!!
I havent heard anything much about the folks I went to school with at CCAD.

Unknown said...

Looks like the city didn't like what they saw there when they inspected:

http://la.everyblock.com/pool-inspections/by-date/2008/7/31/314992/

James Gurney said...

OK, no winners on this contest. This was way too hard. Even my wife couldn't get it. And the upper middle one was cropped out of the book cover. But anyway, FYI, the book covers are:
Glory Lane
Citizen Phaid
Starrigger
Quozl, and
Cowboy Feng's Spaceport Bar and Grill

Jean Spitzer said...

I only recognized the last one. This is fun; like looking for "ninas" in Al Hirschfeld drawings.

Mark Verheiden said...

Wow, a photo of the GP... I went by a few months ago and, except for looking considerably more dilapidated and sporting many more iron bars, the place was pretty much the same.

I actually got a hug from an art dealer once when they learned I had inherited Tom Kinkade's old apartment. I'm still not sure why. To think I spackled over those glorious paint spatters!

James Gurney said...

Hey, great to hear from you, Mark. Yeah, we visited the place, too, and it had seen better days.