Gavin O'Keefe

Infobox Writer


imagesize = 150px
name = Gavin L. O'Keefe
caption =
pseudonym =
birthdate =
birthplace = Australia
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Artist, writer
nationality = Australian
period =
genre =
subject =
movement =
influences =
influenced =


website = http://www.geocities.com/flyingspider2002/

Gavin L. O'Keefe is an Australian illustrator.

Biography

Early life

Born in Melbourne, schooled at The Armidale School, NSW, he lived in Sydney from the early-1980s to 1990. During that period, his artwork (usually black and white, though sometimes colour) was included in a variety of non-fiction books, science-fiction and horror magazine and other publications. His earliest covers were for books by Australian writers Jacob G. Rosenberg, Alex Skovron, Walter Adamson, and Ian Kennedy Williams.

Career

His work has also appeared in many journals, including "Crypt of Cthulhu", "Phantastique", "Pulse of Darkness", "Shadowplay", "Terror Australis", "Wildfire" and "Theosophy in Australia". He has also provided illustrations for anthologies such as "".

He contributed some 'horsey' drawings to the first book devoted to the sport of polocrosse in Australia ("Polocrosse: Australian Made, Internationally Played" by Sally Boillotat, Belcris Books, Sydney 1990).

O'Keefe published two collections of his artwork, and his illustrations for Lewis Carroll's "Alice In Wonderland" (subtitled 'The GO Alice') were published in Melbourne in 1990. His continuing fascination with Carroll is displayed in his illustrated edition of "The Hunting of the Snark".

He has a special interest in the art of Australian painters Rosaleen Norton, Norma Bull, and Vali Myers. He has also written essays on writers and artists, such as "Sita and Salome: A Short Comparative Look at the Art of Aubrey Beardsley and Mervyn Peake" in "Peake Studies" 2, No 3 (Winter 1991) and "Alice's Odyssey in Oz", "Oz Arts" 7 (1993).

O'Keefe illustrates for a wide variety of media, as exemplified by his artwork for the graphic novel "Jonny Flathead, Psychotronic Werewolf" from Chris G.C. Sequeira's Sequence Productions.

One of his most recent jackets is for the Lovecraftian novel "Marblehead" by Richard A. Lupoff, published by Shreveport, Louisiana, small press Ramble House, managed by writer/musician Fender Tucker. (O'Keefe has provided most of the book cover art for the numerous titles issued by Ramble House.)

Books

*Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Melbourne: The Carroll Foundation, 1990)
*Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark(1993)
*William Blake, "An Island in the Moon" (Newport News, Virginia: Purple Mouth Press, 1998)

Awards

*2002 Sixth Annual Imitate Keeler Competition, for the story "Turn Up on Time!" [ [http://staff.xu.edu/~polt/keeler/ikc6.html Sixth Annual Imitate Keeler Competition] ]

References

*"Alice 125: A Celebration". Melbourne: Carroll Foundation, 1990 (exhibition catalogue; includes biography on, and article by, O'Keefe), p. 216
*"Illustrators of Peake", "Peake Studies" 2, No 1 (Winter 1990), pp. 28-29.
*"The O'Keefe File" (interview by Bryce J. Stevens), "Choking Dog Gazette", 4 (Winter 1999).

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/flyingspider2002/ Gavin O'Keefe's homepage]
* [http://www.ramblehouse.com/GavinGallery/GavinOkeefe.htm "A Ramble House Gallery of the Cover Art of Gavin L. O'Keefe"]