I was born in the small, unsung hamlet of Bristol, Conn. in 1961. I always enjoyed science fiction, adventure and fantasy. I suppose many of us remember tying a towel around our necks and racing around the yard. While this practice has, for the most part, not carried over into adulthood, I have always clung to the imagination that those days engendered. Daydreaming was a constant occupation, much to my second and third grade teachers’ agitation. The dullness of everyday life just made it too difficult to concentrate on math and history. Where I truly found myself was in art class. Oh yeah, now this was something I could work with. Art became my passion. I attended Salem State College in Massachusetts and then The Art Institute of Boston as an illustration major. My invisible towel still firmly in tow. Upon graduating I spent a number of years in advertising, editorial and the random design firms doing layout and design to pay the bills, but I always dreamed of pursuing my passion. Illustration. I was so influenced by authors like Tolkien and Burroughs and illustrators like Rockwell, Parrish, Mucha, Wyeth, Maitz and Whelan. Their work just gave more fuel to my already overactive imagination.

My instructors at the Art Institute always used Chris Van Allsburg as an example of what to strive for with our art. They would tell us to use a vantage point that was unusual. Create interesting characters and illustrate the subtext as well as the main text.

‘The magic lives in the details’, they would tell us. I learned to love the details.

My recent projects include cover art for Tobias Buckell’s “Tides From The New Worlds” (Wyrm Publishing, April 2009), Charles Coleman Finlay’s “The Prodigal Troll” (Pyr, May 2005), Scott Mackay’s “Tides” (Pyr, November 2005), Keith Brooke’s “Genetopia” (Pyr, February 2006), and Alexis Glynn Latner’s “Hurricane Moon” (Pyr, July 2007)

I currently live outside of Boston with my wife Karen, also an artist, our daughter Gracie, a budding artist herself, and our 3 cats, who are presently writing a screenplay for a major studio.

Website

Brian Dow has the following works available at Clarkesworld: