In celebration of LOST's final season and to bring finality to the LOST poster series,8 top designers and artists, who are also fans of the show, were commissioned to create artwork celebrating top moments from the 6th and final season. 4 artists you may recognize, and 4 new artists to the campaign, created labor intensive, hand-pulled screen prints, limited to an edition of just 550, with 500 available to the public through our website. Once this limited edition print has sold out, they will never be printed again. Celebrate finality with this unique, signed and numbered piece of history.
Our interview today is with Guy Burwell. His piece is entitled "The Candidate Cave."
[caption id="attachment_7272" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Guy Burwell's "The Candidate Cave""]
[/caption]LOSTblog: How did you become a fan of LOST?
Guy Burwell: For me it was long after the show started, returning to bits and pieces glimpsed on the flickering set. I had watched a few of the early transmissions but was not captivated until I viewed them again, digesting the old information with new eyes. It wasn't until past associations started falling into place that the substance of the adventure began to gel into a murky glue and then who could escape? Nobody, that's who. So here we are. Stuck.
LOSTblog: Describe the details of how you were contacted to do the poster? What instructions or parameters were you given for the post?
Guy Burwell: Several weeks ago a shadowy man I had never heard of sent me a mysterious message about a secret project and I had to know more, of course. The notes began to filter in and the shape of the endeavor began to define itself. The parameters of the mission were easily defined: I was given a specific instance from the adventure and free reign to interpret it as I saw fit. Then the description came. The Candidate Cave was an unusual mission for myself, as I needed to take the varied elements and reconstruct them into a form I would be comfortable with. Cave walls, solitary figures, scrawled coded clues, mysterious symbolism and torchlight. I was given a very short amount of time and the threat of terrible punishment if I were to fail.
LOSTblog: What was your process for developing the poster?
Guy Burwell: The elements themselves were dictated by the reality, the perceived reality, of the adventure as it had developed thus far. My interpretation of the information formed itself quickly though roughly as the solution to two men in a cave with coded walls and eerie overtones has been addressed in pictorial a great many times. I didn't want to retread trod ground but there were several classic interpretations available to me, and after scratching out a few solutions, the setting sun dictated a decision need be made. First I had to decide on a language of my own to disseminate my version of the clues. To draw a man is easy. To draw a rock is basic. To draw a top hat, mustache, crooked nose and monocle is Snidley Whiplash, that is, evil illustrated plain for all to see. I decided a stately graphic format was more interesting than decrepitude for a sublime momentous occasion. Decrepitude has been seen enough daylight in too many ways. Nothing is more common than decay. Juggle the elements, strain them through respect for the intellect of the viewer, and drop them unconventionally to invite a more studied examination. Create multiple points of view to illustrate a moment created by many points of view. Darkness and light of the literal nature of nature and of the nature of man and of the nature of intent, repeating themselves over and over across the faces of the adventurers, through the cave, across the totems, through the smoke, from the fore to the aft from plane to plane.
LOSTblog: How did this project compare to your other creations?
Guy Burwell: It was actually a bit harder than usual as being provided the necessary information and then being enlisted to decipher, examine and reconstruct the messages into new messages is a daunting task even for seasoned code makers. The information shouldn't be given away too easily. To be given a picture of a muffin, and then be asked to reinterpret the muffin for a respected and respectful audience of only the most ardent muffin lovers and worshippers, one would never be so shallow, so underestimating of their devout muffinations as to provide a simple view of the outer shell, the commonly perceived, without addressing all of the hidden goodness, mystery, goodness and savory (and unsavory) possibilities that might lurk within. Right? Of course.
LOSTblog: Besides your own, what is your favorite print from the series?
Guy Burwell: The Little Friends of Printmaking print is the most interesting visually. Some folk might see lightheartedness as the antithesis to the grim nature of dark discovery, but there is nothing good natured about a cartoon fish and no reason not to suspect a pleasant graphic of great evils and dastardly intent. Anyone can tell you that. Obviousness is too obvious these days and not an interpretation of anything. Everyone seems to be showing their muffins these days.
LOSTblog: Who is your favorite LOST character and why?
Guy Burwell: I can tell you my least favorite character is the name of the band "Drive Shaft". Creative people who have not the slightest idea of good music always come up with the shittiest names for rock bands in popular culture and literature.
LOSTblog: Kate or Juliet?
Guy Burwell: Neither, thank you. One is so obviously a vampire and the other seems like such a giant hassle.
LOSTblog: How will it end?
