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Rendering of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Courtesy of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Artnet
The San Diego Comic Convention always has a few headlines to tell each time it happens. The 2025 edition of the world-famous cultural event was no different. This year saw superstar group Nine Inch Nails make an appearance, alongside cinema hero-freak The Toxic Avenger. Fans of every walk of fantasy and music were treated to an experience to remember with stars of stage and screen rubbing shoulders with producers, writers, and directors and opening the gates of their world. For a few short hours, the showbiz universe collided with that of the masses in full dress, giving fans a real sense of being among the stars.
Something many people were thrilled to see was the first appearance of Star Wars star George Lucas at the well-known festival. The story writer who brought us Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and R2D2 was there to explain his next big adventure. It’s not a film this time, but a monumental building dedicated to the art of telling stories. The Museum Of Narrative Art. Dubbed “The Temple to the People’s Art” by the man himself, co-founder George Lucas, the venue will help uncover and explain how stories bring common belief systems to the front of our minds, via vivid imaginary situations and the correct action. Perhaps this is why storytelling is still as important today as it always has been, and although time-tested classics can instruct us on all kinds of things, society always meets new challenges and unique perspectives that challenge the old. A 300,000 square foot space dedicated to the art of storytelling will open in 2026, all being well, and is expected to become an integral part of the wider community. Displaying the history of storytelling art, the museum will contain everything from cave paintings and hieroglyphs to film posters and modern animation. The specific expertise required to be an illustrator, either in comic book form or in literary journals, is often overlooked. Lucas is passionate about bringing this specialism and exciting career to the front of the experience. Pictures are a kind of language all in their own, with meanings and suggestions hiding behind often simple or seemingly humdrum depictions. Putting images into the mind that contain emotional relevance and life-lesson style wisdom has been going on since the days of the stone-age. Depicting spears killing animals meant that anyone from anywhere could see the image and know that spears can do this. Pre-language society found a way to pass on the wisdom. Now when we see futuristic films and read comics about strange alternate realities, we can learn all kinds of abstract and useful things about the way the world really works. Recommended read: What Great Paintings Say. Masterpieces in Detail: 100 Masterpieces in Detail (Bibliotheca Universalis) by Rainer and Rose-Marie Hagen 
A travelling art exhibit that explores modern history is always a good idea. When the historical event is travel itself and the mode of travel is an authentic example of the period, it becomes a masterstroke. That’s exactly what migration academic and artist Robert Louis Brandon Edwards is doing with his freshly acquired 1947 Greyhound Bus. Its 1970's mobile home interior has been torn out and replaced with as much genuine art and design from the era that Edwards can produce or locate. The Great Migration occurred between the 1950s and 1970s and is when many African American families left their ancestral home in the South and moved to what was a more liberal, more welcoming, and more labour rich Middle, North, and West America, or so they thought.
The entire demographic map of the nation changed in just a short period of time, within two generations the country has diversified and adapted to take on new workers and school children from a more traditional life. When the past meets the present, it can be a difficult time for people, conversative and progressive, and this melting pot of identity, idea, culture, and story became enriched and strained in equal amounts at the time. Now that these people are our elder generation and their children are in positions of power where they can actually bring about change, it’s a great time to re-ignite the conversation all these years later. Doing it in a way that’s constructive and valuable is a problem that an artist is best placed to solve. The travelling museum will bring to light some of the big questions of the day and relive some of the schemes and social structures set up to challenge and support the transition to a more liberal and free society. Not shying away from the difficult realities and the ghost-pepper style flavour of some of the subject matter, attitude such as racism will not be hidden. The artist fully intends to tell it how it really is and make use of all the darkness in the truth palette to bring his exhibition to life. Segregation and Jim Crow laws will be talked about and discussed as well as the food, music, clothing, and everything good about African American culture. The Raymond Loewy definitive model once did business around the Great Lakes region and so was instrumental in the era’s movement of people. States and cities such as Cleveland, New York, Chicago, and Detroit all have distinctive and rich histories surrounding the Great Migration. Currently parked up at the Cleveland Chester Avenue Greyhound Terminus, the bus is preparing to move on when the bus stop shuts its doors for good later this year. The lower airfares and the car share apps available make bus and coach travel less profitable for owners. It’s certain that the life of this bus is not over, and even as it hits 80 years old, its new story has only just begun. A great little book available on Kindle: The Great Migration: An Epic Journey of Hope and Change in America 
‘Personal’ … The Tragedies by Emma Talbot. Photograph Courtesy the artist (The Guardian)
It’s open until the 5th of October, so you’ve plenty of time to get yourself down to How We Learn To Love. The latest Emma Talbot exhibition is at Compton Verney in Warwickshire. (It’s pronounced Warrick). She’s recently completed a residency in Italy, which she received after winning the Max Mara Prize in 2019. Now living between Emilia and the UK, Emma Talbot is exploring silk paintings with a Medean twist. She wants to portray the Greek mother Medea who killed her sons and draw comparisons to people who send soldiers to war. If a mother sends her sons to war, is she any different to Medea? Is certain death and risk of death the same thing? What if you know your sons will be doing the killing. How do you feel about that?
Browse flight discounts Utilising the flowing and lustrous quality of silk, Emma Talbot paints her images in vivid colour with beautifully designed details. Uncovering the mental anguish and existential dread that grows from thoughts of war, terror, death, and pain, the weeping and screaming of those left behind can only represent the narrative of the beaten. What a tragedy. When the UK Government is considering conscription to boost its military strength, do they realise what effect this will have on the way parents up and down the country will feel about them? I don’t think they do. It’s a good job we can vote every five years. What Emma Talbot is asking for, is perhaps a world where aggression and killing isn’t accepted anywhere. Maybe the only reason we use it ourselves it because others are already on that platform. Look at Tibet, the pacifist nation under occupation. The notion of putting your life on the line to protect something you value is not uncommon, getting used to the idea of death is the first step. In a self-centred society where the individual is marketed for and praised, who can blame anyone for never looking in that direction? These people who come from places where life is not so certain and where negative emotions compound over generations, how do we deal with the inevitable outcome? It’s not that Talbot is war obsessed, she is an emotional creator who delves deep into her own inner landscape with thoughts and feelings manifesting in her art. It’s not just silk, either, she works on animation and sculpture as well as painting in various forms. The reach of her vision stretches into pain points and difficulties that touch most modern folk and probably played a role in the distant past, too. The collection called Magical Thinking looks at how we tell stories about the facts we encounter in the world and turn our lives into a semi fairytale by embellishing on the cues. Like a little game, it can have rules and agendas that completely step out of the real world. Putting away the childish things requires us to recognise them, and perhaps this work helps us to do just that. Don’t forget, you can get to see Emma Talbot’s work, How We Learn To Love at Warwickshire’s Compton Varney until the 5th of October. Via The Guardian 
Whether you want to sell more paintings or have more people agree with your moral message, it’s a good idea to learn marketing. This isn’t a capitalist thing where you sell out for the green. Not at all. It’s about your job interview with the world, as yourself. When you apply for a job, you put your best foot forward. If you’re really serious, you do some homework and find out about the business you’re applying for. Getting your art and your communication out into the world is achieved to the best possible level when we follow the same principle. So, what actually are the benefits of this term? Are we talking about little piggies and roast beef?
One of the big issue principles of marketing is strategy. You have a goal, to sell paintings, books, ideas, or whatever. Whether you’re in political activism or a punk band or you’ve created your own rich and diverse universe across ten unique and fascinating novels, if the wide world doesn’t see the benefits of giving you a shot, what’s the point? By focusing your efforts in a way that means people sit up and listen and then remember fondly the things you’ve given them, they will often come back for more. It’s not a straight-forward method, different products, different audiences, different ideas all need their own kind of voice and social identity. Getting to this is a paramount milestone when growing your arts brand. It used to be about paper advertising and maybe ones on the radio. TV advertising is for the wealthy and still is, but now there’s social media. We all can run ads and have people see our offering. Even when we don’t pay for views, which many of us would rather not do, we can still use the social media system to organically reach a lot more than we would by handing out leaflets in town or putting on a local ad in the paper. Learning how to phrase, position, and apply advertising is key to allowing others to fully appreciate the value and scope of what you are offering. It’s vital that you learn how it works. What about this audience? Who are you aiming for? Are you likely to win over many of that statistic with that particular image or phrase? Do you need to think again? Understanding the people you are influencing is as important as finding the right message. If you’ve got a bus load of rugby players, you can’t get far with cricket metaphors. Confuse them even more by talking about something completely non-sporting, like cloud formations over Peru, and you’ll lose them bus and its driver. Speaking in terms that people understand and staying in the circle they listen to requires a persistent effort to understand their principles, their understanding of the world, and the things they value. We must learn to spend their currency. This all boils down to one simple principle, that reaches into every factor or marketing. Branding is the symbolic image that people associate with everything you stand for. Your story, your people, your imagery, and your products all fit into the one symbol or the one name that you chose to represent yourself with. The more focused and together this image becomes, the stronger your brand will be in the eyes of the customer. It’s about trust, accountability, and safety. People want to know that if they buy your idea that they won’t get in trouble later on. They want to associate with something that speaks positively about themselves, not negatively. This means that your brand is like a child who needs constant attention. The best way to build a brand that people can identify with is by using real human storytelling to instill a sense of shared vision. When you and the customer are on the same page then people are more likely to take what you’re offering. By having the right story, the right blend of motives, and the right passion, customers will be attracted to the sense of fit they get when they think about the big picture. If they fit in somewhere, they’ll feel comfortable around your offerings. This stuff isn’t easy to learn, it has to be understood, practiced, applied, and relearned several times before you become really good at it. Thankfully, YouTube is stocked full of free to watch lecture series on marketing for you to plough through. A range of sources from various lecturers are listed here so sift through the bulk and find something that resonates with your own journey. Marketing Basics by Professor Myles Bassell Introduction To Marketing by Alanys Business Academy Principles of Marketing by Kotler and Armstrong Marketing Managment by Dharmendra Gupta Principles of Marketing and Management by Bharath Naik L Marketing by Harvard Business Principles of Marketing by Virtual University of Pakistan Digital Marketing by Edureka “Best marketing lectures ever” Marketing Research and Analysis by Prof. J.K. Nayak Strategic Sales Management by IIT Roorkee Social Media Marketing by Simplilearn International Marketing by Windows of Wisdom Enjoy at your own pace, gain some wisdom, and share this list with your people so we can all get a bit more out of life. Good luck! |
CategoriesAuthorAlternative Fruit by Rowan B. Colver 
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October 2025
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