BUFFO

Cover illustration for The Floating Gods by M. John Harrison

Mar 21, 2025

A man wearing the skull of a deer clasps the long tube of a telescope tightly to him. One sleeve of his tattered white garments is rolled up past the elbow. Ridges of veins are raised in the tense grips of his hands. Red orbs fill the sockets of the skull while green ribbon twists around the bone until loosely draping over antlers. Filaments sprout, oddly feathery, from the curling rack. On the dingy shelves behind, a small assortment of hardbound books lean with more stacked haphazardly on the long shelf below. Charts tacked to the wall curl with age. Points of light, more like street lamps than stars, gleam in the cracked glass of a many-paned window. — BUFFO (1982), Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 32" X 22"

Reading a novel by M. John Harrison always leaves me with the feeling that I've experienced some vivid, chaotic dream full of important but indecipherable symbols and images. This painting attempts to take that mood and give it a visual expression. The title is the name of the character wearing the mask.

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