about the cover art
Many people have asked me about the cover art of "No Bad Deed Goes Unpublished." I have always loved Edvard Munch’s "The Scream," of which the cover art is based, but I wanted something that showed amusement as well as the angst of the original piece, so I turned to one of the Thousand Islands' most renowned and gifted artists, Greg Lago, to illustrate the front cover. The minute I saw his quirky conception with the Thousand Islands Bridge and the sinking dingy in the background, I knew I had made a great choice in illustrators. He also did a nice job on my hair.
If you are ever in the Clayton, New York area, I highly recommend a trip to Greg's studio called, The Winged Bull. He is as clever as he is talented, and his work is extremely unique, which makes his art so collectible by many. I am sure Edvard would approve of Greg's interpretation. To learn more about Greg Lago, visit his website at Winged Bull Studio .
Edvard Munch died at the age of 81 in 1944. He was and is considered Norway's most famous artist, and come to think of it, Norway doesn't seem to be famous for much except fjords, spelling Edward as Edvard, some writer called Henrik Ibsen who wrote plays, and "The Scream" — oh, and Vikings they're cool — but maybe my book will help put Norway on the map because they deserve it. It really is a pretty neat country, as far as countries go.
Not to get off the subject, but I have a friend who is married to a Norwegian named Arald Idar, who is very handsome, despite his weird name. I must add that Norway has an official government list of acceptable Norwegian names, a law that dates back from the 1800 and is intended to protect children from any Norwegian names that sound or look strange. Yeah, like that worked. Great, now I'm going to have a bunch of Norwegians mad at me.Go ahead and make fun of my name if it makes you feel better.
Note: Munch did several versions of "The Scream." Oddly enough, two of the most famous versions have been stolen at one point or another. In 1994, one version was stolen from the Norwegian National Gallery during the Winter Olympics as part of the "Down Hill Painting Heist"competition.It was later found undamaged in a hotel room outside Oslo, which is near Norway somewhere.
The other version, the one that the cover of my book is based on, was stolen in 2004 by two armed masked thieves while gallery visitors watched and went, "Oh, you are in big trouble now. We are soooo telling on you."
That painting has yet to be recovered and has an estimated value of $75 million. If you know anything about this crime, please contact Interpol. Do not try to retrieve this painting on your own because that would be dumb.
Update
OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian painter Edvard Munch's masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" were put on show on Tuesday for the first time since police recovered them in August, two years after they were stolen from an Oslo museum.
The paintings from 1893 suffered minor damage at the hands of thieves who had stolen them from the Munch Museum in broad daylight in front of stunned tourists on August 22, 2004.
"The paintings are not so damaged so that it would be impossible to have a complete aesthetic experience of them," said Ingebjoerg Ydstie, acting chief curator of the Munch Museum.
The pictures, shown to the media on Tuesday, will be on public display from Wednesday to Sunday before restoration work begins.
"We want to share the homecoming of the paintings with visitors," Ydstie said. Restoration could take about a year.
The paintings were displayed lying flat in specially made, climate-controlled glass showcases.
"Madonna" had a hole about the size of a coin and a smaller tear in the canvas. The damage to "The Scream" was harder to discern, but it suffered dampness in the left lower corner.
The Scream, Munch's most famous work, is an icon of existential angst, showing a terrified figure against a blood-red sky. Madonna shows a bare-breasted woman with long black hair.
Munch Museum restorer Gry Landro told Reuters it could be hard to repair "The Scream" since it was painted on cardboard attached on a wooden base:
"One cannot go in and fix it from the back."
Ydstie said she thought it would be possible to repair the rips to "Madonna."
The paintings were recovered two years and nine days after they were stolen by two masked gunmen. The Norwegian police have not said how they recovered them.
Three men were convicted in May of taking part in the theft and were sentenced to up to eight years in jail. Three other men were acquitted. Police did not made any new arrests or charges in connection with the recovery.
Museum officials said on Tuesday that they did not know any more about where the paintings had been for over two years nor how they had been damaged.
Another version of The Scream was stolen in 1994 from Oslo's National Gallery by thieves who broke a window and climbed in with a ladder. It was recovered after several months by police posing as buyer