Patrick Pierson’s Registered & Protected Web Page

 Advanced SearchView CartCheckoutPlanet Z






 (click the dodo's snoot!)
Search


Items in your cart


Empty

 Categorieswww.RattleTheChain.comMUSEUM OF ZOOTZOOTWERKS PRINTSGALLERY OF FYSHFYSHWERKS PRINTSSUBMARINER SERIESMINIMARINER SERIESFOLKSMYTH SERIESSKETCHWERKSORIGINAL OIL PASTELSOIL PASTEL PRINTSCANVAS MURALSPOSTER ARTCOMMISSIONED WERKSWERKS-IN-PROGRESSTAXIDERMATABASSO-RELIEVOFINE ART NOTE CARDS




  Planetary Service
 My Illustrated Novel
 ART SHOW SCHEDULE


Welcome to Planet Zootopia
         
                                          the Official Website of  PATRICKPIERSONFor the noble-minded dodo, life is a zoo at the back of beyond...Z  O  O  T  O  P  O  S  P  H  E  R  E t h e  R e s u r r e c t i o n  o f  F r e e t h i n k i n g(TOPOS [tope-us]: a term for a stock device of rhetoric, which is related to inventio,the central, indispensable canon of rhetoric that traditionally refers to a systematicsearch for valid arguments. To learn more, read to the bottom of the page.) 
Over the course of the past decade Patrick Pierson’s Mariners have dominated the undiscovered fantasy worldof Planet Zootopia. The mermaliens and crustapiens that populate the Mariner Series first swam into the light of dayin the Summer of 1998 and somehow managed to keep their terrestrial cousins under wrap. Now, heralding the birthof a new Zootopian Age, the Mariners will share the stage with all manner of anthropomorphic terrans.Fyshwerks Studio Gallery proudly presents PLANET ZOOTOPIA, where animals rule!                                                                                                                           THE ZOOTOPIAN CREDO 
"To have lived at all is a dream come true; to live in awe of the dream is cause to celebrate,to revel in the wonder of life and all its delicious bedlammy; from lovers spurned andfortunes lost to plots unbound and rivals crushed, let us bask in the splendiferyand wallow in the mayhemble -- be it good or bad, we celebrate life!"            

   
ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES"Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted objectwhich we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals,directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originallybreathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed lawof gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."                            -Charles Darwin____________________________________________  
 To visit my custom shop for ‘Prints-on-Demand’ at Fine Art America,click on 'Planetary Service, then click on the LOCATOR tab,or copy and paste this link into your browser:http://fineartamerica.com/customshop/patrick-pierson.html                                                                                  Patrick Pierson: A DECADE OF DREAMS, NO LIMITSIt's been ten rambunctious years since I began the Mariner Series - ten years filled withincredibly good fortune, most of which never happened: In fact, I may be one of the mostalternately privileged and humble, notorious and unacknowledged, admired and beratedartists you've ever met.Still, the Mariner Series has come a long way since I made those quirky little mermaliensketches, the sole purpose of which was to lift an emerging artist out of his down-and-outfunk long enough to maybe put some food on the table for a change. To my never-endingshock and wonderment, the Mariner Series has become one of the most widely collected,longest lasting and successful bodies of artwork in history*. Now, with the recentunveiling of PLANET ZOOTOPIA, I've come to realize just how horrific a study in thevirtues of chasing a dream can be...Just ten short years ago I was nothing if not ever-expectant regarding success, much likethat doggedly determined dodo in The Dreamsmyth. I could see myself rubbing mymental hands together in anticipation of finally realizing the life I had imagined, firmlybelieving I had a thin thread of hope to cling to as I set sail in my little dreamboat.It’s been my experience, as I pilot my leaky vessel of hope, that chasing any dream ofartistic and entrepreneurial freedom is more akin to sitting down with the irony gods in agame of thimblerig than plotting a course up some fixed corporate ladder. It's a hardlesson, learned only with a significant amount of humility: you chase after your dream,hunt it down, capture it alive if you can, keep it shackled to the bedpost and feed itregularly till one fateful morning you wake up minus a bedpost and you're right back tosquare one.Life loves irony.By design, Planet Zootopia represents the very essence of the yin and yang of this pursuit:live every day as if it were your last and live forever (as the dodo knows all too well);love without condition but be a slave to your passions; prudence is a lousy handmaiden,so throw yourself into the fray with wild abandon and let the chips fall where they may -in the end you will have few regrets because it is your own life that you've filled up withthat dream, and the life you've made belongs solely to you.I'm often asked questions like, "Hey Pat, why fish?" or, "You're kidding...dodos? Seriously?"not to mention, "No offense, but that looks like Joe Camel," and my personal favorite,"I get it! Jar-Jar Binks, right?"To finally set the record straight, here's my official response: All the inhabitants of PlanetZootopia - from aardvarks to zebras and every dodo, camel and mermalien in between -are anthropomorphic symbols: representations of the archetype we think of as the ego or'self.' And what better vehicles than the tenacious little puffin, the gruff-and-tumblecrustapien or the rakishly flamboyant andromedarian to illustrate with narrative and toshow you with imagery a stylized reality in which the ordinary features of our world arebrought into focus with wild exaggeration, the relationship of the imitation to the objectit imitates being something like the relationship of synchronized swimming to dog-paddling.On a more personal note, I am neither an atheist nor an agnostic; neither Christian nor Muslimor Jew; neither Republican nor Democrat or Libertarian; neither liberal nor Conservativeor moderate. I'm just a fella with an open mind - so open that sometimes my brains fallout. While I identify with none of the above group labels per se, some of the exceptionalqualities intrinsic to and unique in each one have been instrumental in making me who Iam, i.e., I am an atheist and a Christian (yet neither), etc.Life loves irony.I neither subscribe to theories of predestination, nor do I condone notions of apreordained future that foretells events; I reserve a special brand of contempt foranything forecast by reverse prophesy. I dismiss out of hand the presumption that eachof us has some special calling or sacred assignment in life, other than that of our ownchoosing, and I reject all superstitious beliefs, especially those rooted in the cults thatarise out of a fear of death. But I do embrace the possibility that each of us has the powerto create the person we wish to be, that the only limitation imposed is the degree towhich we exercise our own imagination and then act upon it: Vision without action is adaydream; action without vision is a nightmare.Confronted with the unhappy apprehension we feel when coming to terms with our ownmortality, some of us are tempted by a selfish compulsion to extend our lives beyond thelast act, to leave a little token of ourselves behind - something that tacitly proclaims,"I was here!"Poppycock and codswallop.To my last breath...I will strive to illuminate the world by enlightening the fertile minds of all who seek truth,both young and old, by yanking the damned blinders off any credulous fool that swoonsat the mere mention of a belief in the truth of Supernaturalism, and I'll invite them all tojoin me as together we stand in awe of a life of our own making and the natural world inwhich it is inextricably embedded. Ars Longa, Vita Brevis - Art is long, life is short, orperhaps, Ars Gratia, Vita Brevis - Art for the reason that life is so short: time to get busy!But I digress.Set foot on Planet Zootopia and you're bound to take an anthropomorphic jaunt intothe subconscious - a subtle yet thrilling, at times whimsical way of rejiggering one’ssensibilities in order to see the world - and ourselves within it - in ways seldom imagined,that we may better understand why we are the way we are.The reason I draw, paint and sculpt, just as I write, compose and lecture, is to share withyou some of the wonder I’ve found, to uncover some of the mystery shrouded by the veilof primitive sentiments and to unmask the truth about who we are and where we’regoing.As for the dodo and his archrival, the camel, I consider them to be the quintessence ofsardonic bellwetherers, but in unison, they're a whole flock and herd of happily well-adapted (though still short of wing and long of hump), reason-driven beings whooccasionally fall prey to their own fatuous flights of fancy. Perhaps this is what endearsthem to us, for we see reflected in them a little of ourselves; pragmatic by day, footlooseand fancy-free by night.The ideas embodied in these urbane folktales-married-to-art may not change your life,but perhaps you'll pause long enough to contemplate a good point or two and discoversomething you hadn't imagined till you suddenly found yourself facing down the beakyvisage of an ordinary dodo - or perhaps, the matchless wit of the dromedary camel.Irony notwithstanding, I should add that I believe Planet Zootopia will eventually find ahome in the hearts and minds of all who seek it, and possibly those unwary enough to betaken in by surprise.Finally, I must confess to you that at the outset of the Mariner Series I had a grand visionfor the mermaliens: a concept for a CGI, feature-length, live action/animated film. Just acouple of years after I sold the first of what now amounts to hundreds of paintings sold, Ibegan a spec script with the working title of Aquaria Rising, complete with storyboardsand character sketches.This project has become yet another ball in that never-ending game of thimblerig, but itis a story that deserves to be told, and as such, I have reconfigured it in the form of anillustrated novel, 'Mask of the Ancient Mariner.' It is by far the best thing I've ever done,my magnum opus, and I intend to see it through - to be a fool for it come what may, intrue andromedarian style.I trust these vignettes will help unwrapilate our minds to wild possibilities and teach us toappreciate the wondrous-strange experiences we share with one another: ultimately, totake off the purpose-colored spectacles and cognisize our true place in the 'verse - a placeinto which we've only recently awakened. This humble little flock of dodos and theirdiversigent coterie stand as a testament to our embrace of many of life's trials andtribulations while striving to live the life we imagine for ourselves.For all of you to whom these presents may come, to my esteemed collectors, closest anddearest friends one and all, you are the reason I carry on, consumed with this elusivepursuit of a dream; without the continuing endorsement of my work through yourgenerous benefaction, I might as well pack it in. So, thanks!With warm regards, Patrick Pierson*the history of Planet Zootopia, of course___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
  Be sure to read my NEW post, entitled 'DECLARATION' at Z  O  O  T  O  P  O  S  P  H  E  R  Et h e  R e s u r r e c t i o n  o f  F r e e t h i n k i n gMore than an artlog, ZOOTOPOSPHERE is a place where people who are skeptical of authority can openly expressopinions and boldly speculate on topics as wide-ranging as the controversy between the mythology of Creation & thescience of Evolution; the intrinsic immorality of advocates of Social Justice versus the noble spirit of the champions ofFree Enterprise; and the face-off betwixt those who embrace the superstitious beliefs underlying the myth of ‘man-made’global warming and the bonafide scientists whose only notion of superstition lies in its original meaning: standingstill in awe of the wonder of the Universe into which they‘ve just awakened. To enter the fray and add your voiceto the opinions of others on these topics and more, just follow this link...  http://patrickpierson.blogspot.com 
      
       
    
           
     
                                                                        
        







Featured Category



MUSEUM OF ZOOT




Featured Product



THE RAPE OF LADY LIBERTY: Fine Art Print
"For what avail the plough or sail,               Or land or life, if freedom fail?" 






E-mail a friend
about Planet Zootopia.

 

Are You Ready? Just 
231
 days 'til Christmas!
Advanced Search  | View Cart  | Checkout
 | About Us
 | Service
 | Policies
 | Home
Commerce enabled by Storefront Copyright ©
2010Planet Zootopia
. All Rights Reserved.