{"id":3945,"date":"2016-09-05T17:14:48","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T17:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secretacres.com\/?page_id=3945"},"modified":"2023-02-23T16:27:24","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T16:27:24","slug":"reid-psaltis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/secretacres.com\/?page_id=3945","title":{"rendered":"Reid Psaltis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nBIO<\/span><\/p>\n

Reid Psaltis<\/span> majored in oil painting at Western Washington University, completed the science illustration graduate program at California State University – Monterey Bay. He interned in the Exhibitions Department at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, participating in the creation of the museum’s world famous dioramas. Reid’s work has been featured online at the Rumpus<\/i>, Top Shelf 2.0, Study Group Comics and Trip City<\/i>. His work has been published by Scout Books’ Good Ink series, Science Notes <\/i>and Alternative Comics, and he is the illustrator of Dan Berne\u2019s the Gods of Second Chances <\/i>(Forest Avenue Press). He lives in Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n

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\nIN PRAISE OF REID PSALTIS<\/span><\/p>\n

Psaltis<\/span> (The Order of Things<\/i>) expands on his naturalistic oeuvre in this dreamlike dark fantasy. Told through impressionistic, wordless dialogue (only a single written word appears in the entire story), Psaltis follows the bizarre adventure of a nameless man, mysteriously drawn away from the trappings of modern urban life and deep into his own animalistic nature. Yet, as he delves deeper, he finds that reconnecting with his buried instincts is as difficult as it is dangerous. Psaltis\u2019s artistic style recall\u2019s Charles Burns\u2019s Black Hole<\/i>: entirely black and white, near-oppressively the former, and macabre in its magic. The breezy, expressive facility with which he renders deer, wolves, and pigeons is impressive, but the true skill lies not in Psaltis\u2019s knowledge of anatomical drawing, but in his ability to convey each animal\u2019s \u201clanguage\u201d through symbols and variations. It\u2019s a rare talent who is able to make a reader \u201chear\u201d sounds on a page without resorting to onomatopoeia. This innovative graphic novel\u2014a somber, sober reflection on humanity\u2019s contentious relationship with nature\u2014won\u2019t soon lose relevance.<\/p>\n

– Publishers Weekly<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, the man opts for the human world by exhibiting one of the main differences between human and animal, at least, apparently \u2014 abstract thought. It\u2019s this ability of humans to conceive of a world and then make it possible, to conjure the intangible as a real world presence on a grand scale, that separates us. And this reality separates us not only neurologically and culturally, but physically, and it creates myths about the animal world that work to separate us further from it. But it\u2019s hard to say that in opting for the human world, the man is rejecting the animal, or even making an informed decision at all. Is he just building his own prison? Or is he already in a prison and just acknowledging that fact? Are humans prisoners of their own abilities? These are the kinds of questions Kingdom\/Order<\/i> asks. It suggests that barriers between humans and the natural world are real because we have made them so, but that doesn\u2019t mean the experiences in either are necessarily doomed to be exclusive.<\/p>\n

– Comics Beat<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea that \u201csomething has been lost\u201d as we\u2019ve divorced ourselves from the forests, the fields, and their animal inhabitants is so widespread as to be positively ubiquitous at this point. Just about everyone you meet wishes they had more time to spend in the outdoors, and it seems pretty well obvious that many of us keep pets in order to maintain some sort of \u201cconnection,\u201d however tepid and de-fanged, with the animal kingdom. The desire to understand our four-legged friends is as widespread as it is enduring — so what would happen if, one day, we actually could? \u2026All that being said, visual polemics don\u2019t come much more arresting or fascinating than this one, and Psaltis\u2019 cartooning skills are strong. He goes into Kingdom\/Order<\/i> with a very clear message of what he wants to convey, and furthermore with a very clear idea of how he wants to do so, and at the risk of engaging in painfully obvious wordplay, he succeeds wildly at both. By the time you reach the end, you\u2019ll be wondering why the hell we ever came down from the trees.<\/p>\n

– The Comics Journal<\/span><\/p>\n

MORE PRAISE FOR REID PSALTIS<\/span><\/a>\n