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Think Small: The Tiniest Art In The World by Eva Katz (small book review)

From time to time in the UK, either newspapers or television will do a feature on British artists who paint or sculpture at minute sizes. What Eva Katz’ book, ‘Think Small: The Tiniest Art In The World’ reveals is that there are many artists world-wide and 24 are included in this book. Amongst the examples here, are a few SF-based ones but, even if there wasn’t, seeing this miniature work is still jaw-dropping. You have to admire their patience and creativity at working at a size that only someone the size of an ant could truly appreciate and a large magnifying glass for the rest of us. Mind you, if you want a literally small collection, then these are the people to look up.

Think Small: The Tiniest Art in the World by Eva Katz (Chronicle Books)

Eva Katz gives a brief bio for each artist and then a two-page interview about how they work and techniques and then samples of their work. These will vary depending on what is available. As the examples shown here illustrate, I selected those that give a sense of scale because we are talking really tiny. You really do have to admire their patience in all of this and some of them point out that some break and have to start again. Just for a change, some of them will also work at a different scale occasionally just for a change. It also appears to be a lucrative industry and they do sell they work.

Think Small: The Tiniest Art in the World by Eva Katz (Chronicle Books)
Teapot © Jon Almeda

With so many people using so many different media, I ended up databasing for comparison. The information is below:-

Think Small 2018 artists
Christian name Surname Nationality Sex – M Sex – F Meduim -1
Lorraine Loots South Africa No Yes paint
Dina Brodsky USA No Yes paint
Guilia Bernardelli Italy No Yes coffee
Daniele Clough South Africa No Yes fabric
Mab Graves USA No Yes paint
Aki Inomata Japan No Yes sculpture
Shinji Nakaba USA Yes No jewellery
Salavat Fidai Russia Yes No pencil nibs
Klhara Ledonne USA No Yes paint
Hasan Kale Turkey Yes No paints on unusual canvases like nuts
Jasenko Dordevic (TOLDart) UK Yes No pencil nibs
Joe Fig USA Yes No paint/sculpture/panorama
Sergio Garcia USA Yes No mixed-media
Zoe Keller USA No Yes pencil
Shay Aaron Israel Yes No sculpture
Andre Levy Brazil Yes No painting on coins
Rosa de Jong No Yes sculpture
Marine Edith Crosta France No Yes paint
Michael Yurkovic USA No Yes model-making
Taylor Mazer No Yes pen
Heidi Annalise No Yes paint
Jon Almeda Yes No ceramics
Johnny “King Nerd” Dowell UK Yes No engraving
Hoang Tran No Yes crayon sculpture

Five of them didn’t given their nationalities and the women out-numbered the men. I only noted the sex of the artists because I wasn’t sure about some of the names until I read the book. Oddly, only one gives contact details and two or three into our genre with two heavily into comicbook influences. Oh yes, there are some iconic SF characters in here.

Think Small: The Tiniest Art in the World by Eva Katz (Chronicle Books)
Cameo © Khara Ledonne

Looking at the work here, I do think these people are definitely geeky and I hope Chronicle do more books of this sort to show off this amazing talent and work because it is certainly worth a look.

 

Think Small: The Tiniest Art in the World by Eva Katz (Chronicle Books)
The Statue of Liberty ©Salavat Fidai

GF Willmetts

March 2018

(pub: Chronicle Books. 208 page illustrated A5 small hardback. Price: £10.99 (UK), $14.95 (US). ISBN: 978-1-4521-5696-5)

check out website: www.chronicles.co.uk

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

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