This nametag miniature was commissioned by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, one of the authors whom Galen represented as an agent for Scott Meredith Literary Agency.
She was to give it as a gift to Galen. The design is a colorful "linear-abstraction" suggesting a sunset over the sea. The circular logo with the SM initials of the Scott Meredith agency is done in gold metallic paint in the blue "sky." The name was pressed into the design using white adhesive "press-type," a graphic medium which has almost disappeared with the use of digital lettering.
In those days I did plot and create geometric abstractions, but only in miniature sizes. I only started making them in larger sizes in the early 2000s. They are much appreciated by my more sophisticated patrons and art friends, but they seem to be un-sellable, whether at a convention or in a gallery. Thus I have a stack of them, some of them framed, gathering dust and taking up space in my cluttered quarters. They're too "accessible" for the "serious" avant-garde crowd, and too abstract for the fantasy fans. I shouldn't say this to potential art buyers, but I don't love doing these abstractions. I find them tedious. I really want to paint kitschy, tawdry fantasy pictures with dragons, castles, warriors, mechas, spaceships, monsters, and babes, in digital form which takes up no space and can easily be printed. But don't worry, fans, something will always keep me from abasing myself in that fashion.
Russell Galen's nametag is, uh, ink, watercolor, and metallic paint on Faboo Fabriano paper, 3 1/2" x 2 1/4", December 1986.
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