I was saddened by the news of Bill Gold's passing. In a career spanning six decades, Bill Gold worked on some of the most famous movie posters of all time. Some of them he painted himself (CASABLANCA), others he conceived (THE STING, CAMELOT), and some of them he photographed (FOR YOUR EYES ONLY -- perhaps the most famous photographed poster of the James Bond series, with Roger Moore placed squarely between a woman's legs, that caused some controversy when the film was released). Through them all, Gold displayed not only a strong artistic sensibility, but an innate power to capture the spirit and personality of a film within a poster. (Not to mention a cute sense of humor, as his poster for
It was around this time a year ago when I interviewed Rhona Gross at her home in North Carolina. She was a classmate of Richard Amsel’s at the (then named) Philadelphia College of Art. While I intend to post a proper commentary on that meeting in the near future, I mention it here because, of all those I had interviewed, it was Gross who first posed the following question to me: “Does Richard have a panel on the AIDS quilt?” Many might be surprised to learn that Amsel, despite the enormous popularity of his work and creative legacy, is not yet represented on the quilt. I’ve already taken the liberty of changing that. Consulting with David Byrd and Judy Goldman, two of Amsel’s best friends, I
“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” ― Woody Allen I can’t believe we’re already into the month of May, and I haven’t made any updates in almost three months. It’s certainly not for a lack of trying; I’ve just been preoccupied with other priorities as of late. Already I had to put things on hold following my father’s death last fall, so I requested a hiatus from my day job at Warner Bros. to refocus on my health, some personal matters, and (finally) more time for creative projects… You know, stuff like painting and movie making and splitting the atom and everything else you eventually hope to get around to when life stops getting in your way. Oh, but how foolish I was.
