Here at TORn we were delighted recently to make a new friend: Ian Leino from Geek Orthodox. Ian is a glass artist who creates incredible stained glass (and window cling replicas), and who has recently become licensed with Middle-earth Enterprises. So he’s launching a range inspired by Tolkien!
Staffer greendragon recently had a chance to chat with Ian, to find out more about his stunning creations, and his passion for all things Tolkien. Here’s what he had to say:
What was your first encounter with the work of J.R.R. Tolkien?
My parents divorced when I was an infant, but when I was four, my Mom started dating a man who would eventually become my step-father. When he would come to visit, he would always read to be before bedtime – but none of those [little] children’s books; he launched right into The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, and introduced me to the world of fantasy. It took a few years to get through the entire Chronicles of Narnia, and by then they had gotten married and we’d established the routine of a family reading time.
With Narnia behind us, the time was right to graduate to the world of Middle-earth, starting with The Hobbit and progressing through The Lord of the Rings, which captured my imagination in an entirely new way. That bond over Middle-earth is one of the things that bound our new family together, and it’s a common interest that we still share.
Why stained glass – is it a medium which particularly lends itself to images of Middle-earth, do you think?
My interest in stained glass started with my first job, which was sweeping up at a glass studio on the weekends when I was in middle school. And it intensified in college when I studied art history with an emphasis on gothic art and architecture. As a medium, stained glass has always been used to evoke a sense of wonder and grandeur. From the heroes of history to the religious parables in cathedrals – we use stained glass artwork as a way of venerating and celebrating what is important to us.
The world and characters of Middle-earth are such a foundational fandom for so many of us that I feel that they deserve a similar artistic treatment. From the sweeping vistas that call us to adventure, to the coziness of a pub sign where we know our friends are inside sharing tales, these moments and places absolutely shine through the medium of stained glass in a way that they can’t in any other medium.
Are there other Middle-earth artists/interpreters who have influenced you?
I likely have the same major touchstones as many other Tolkien fans my age – starting with the striking animation of the Bakshi films, later finding the stunning work of Alan Lee, and then being absolutely immersed in the world of Middle-earth by the amazing creative teams at WETA.
One of my absolute favorite sets of illustrations ever, though, is the 1976 Russian version of The Hobbit, illustrated by Mikhail Belomlinsky. The illustrations are bold and unique with a touch of whimsy, giving the entire book the feeling of a folk-tale. More than anything, I love the breadth of inspiration that is possible while still being true to the original text, and the huge diversity of artwork based around these stories.
How does it feel to be ‘officially licensed’?
It feels amazing! I feel like I should have a more sophisticated answer, but it’s so overwhelming that all I can think is: “amazing!”. I’ve long enjoyed being part of a worldwide fellowship of artists who create original art that is inspired by these books. So it’s an incredible honor to know that the stewards at Middle-earth Enterprises have selected my artwork to help officially represent that world to fans everywhere. I feel a responsibility to be worthy of that trust – being true to the original text and my own vision – to offer a new way of experiencing the world that Tolkien created.
September 22nd is the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. On September 21st 1937, The Hobbit was published. So this weekend is a great time to celebrate in ‘Shire-ish’ style – and we have suggestions for you if you’re near New York or Los Angeles!
On Saturday 21st, TORn’s good friend Donato Giancola is hosting an Open Studio in Brooklyn. This is an incredible opportunity to meet the artist himself, see where he works, and gaze upon his latest large scale Middle-earth painting, Bridge of Khazad-dûm. If you’re very lucky, you may even go home with a Giancola original of your own! Here are the details:
Donato Giancola Open Studio, 11am – 6pm Saturday 21st September
397 Pacific Street Brooklyn, NY 11217
Donato says:
This Fall (or the end of Summer) will see the annual hosting of an Open Studio here at our home and studio in Brooklyn. Open to you, friends, and anyone who you may like to bring along.
I will be showcasing the newly finished, large scale Middle-earth canvas, the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, alongside handfuls of new oil paintings including recent work for Tad William’s Stone of Farewell, D&D themed drawings, Empathetic Robot projects, as well as scores of classics from my 30+ year career as an illustrator.
Of lucky significance for this event is that September 21st is also the 87th Anniversary of the publication of The Hobbitby J.R.R. Tolkien!
I cannot be more thrilled by this opportunity to celebrate the writings and art of Middle-earth. Keep your eyes out for some very special offerings as I plan events and give-a-ways for this day including a lottery for copies of Middle-earth: Visions of A Modern Myth, a signed The Hobbit featuring my cover art from the Science Fiction Book Club edition (signed just by me, not Tolkien, sorry!), and other original art and prints to be announced in the coming weeks.
Anchoring the studio for the second year in a row is another massive Middle-earth work, at 66″ x 80″, and this time – framed! The successful Kickstarter which just ended this past week will allow me to offer that special print for visitors to examine first hand and enter a lottery for a free large canvas giclee of the art if you missed out on the campaign!
The Lottery will include numerous items in the offering- from an original oil painting, to a Middle-earth original drawing (Moon-Letters – see the image above), to prints, books and Magic Artist Proof paintings – and more to be added as we get closer to the date. (In-person Lottery drawing will be held at 5pm on Saturday, entrants need not be present to win.)
We are also thrilled that the artist & pianist Colleen Quint will be playing live on our piano throughout the day and artists Kelley Hensing and Carter Gill will be present to assist once again this year! New works from Magic: The Gathering as well as interior art for projects with Grim Oak Press will be on display throughout the studio.
For those who may be Darrell Sweet fans, I have his original acrylic painting of the Hobbit cover hanging in our home. This was the artwork used on the paperback book I first read as a young teenager!
Heavy discounts on prints and select original artworks will be offered. I will also have a handful of sketchbooks around for browsing and a few portfolios filled with large, preliminary drawings and studies will also be on display for perusal. Stop by, take in some art, and kick back in the backyard while you enjoy a lemonade in a little part of the Shire in Brooklyn and raise a toast to Tolkien!
Even if you can’t attend in person, you could enter the Online Lottery!
For all the online audience who may not make it to Brooklyn for the Open Studio, Donato is offering an online lottery for give-a-ways, closing September 21st 11:59 PM ET. To register for the lottery to win one of the incredible gifts (listed below) simply visit Donato’s social media pages (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) and enter a comment on the respective post for the Lottery. Or email lottery@donatoarts.com with ‘Enter’ in the subject field/message.
Items for the Online Lottery include:
– Original watercolor, Micro Painted Magic: The Gathering Artist Proof
– Bridge of Khazad-dûm 24″ x 28″ foiled and embossed print (US shipping only)
– The Great Dragon Smaug 14″ x 11″ print (US shipping only)
– Trifold Keepsake of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm and 6″ x 9″ print of Gandalf and the Balrog
One entry per person.
Sunday 22nd September – TORn’s annual Baggins Birthday Bash
Come and eat, drink and be Hobbity with TORn! Staffers Garfeimao and Quickbeam (and others!) will be there to greet folks from 11.30am. Bring food for the potluck; or maybe even enter the Baggins Birthday Cake contest. Costumes strongly encouraged. Enjoy this very popular annual gathering of fans; all are welcome!
You can find all the details about the event here. Please note, this is event is FREE, and will be held in the Mineral Wells Picnic area of the park. There may be other happenings at Griffith Park that day – so double check the details so you know where to find us.
No doubt many fans will be gathering for festivity this weekend; let us know how you’ll be celebrating the Baggins Boys’ birthdays!
TheOneRing.net will be at Griffith Park Sunday, September 22nd, starting at 11:30am to celebrate Bilbo and Frodo’s birthdays with a picnic and festivities. Please join us if you are in the area!
This is a Potluck, so please bring a food item to put on the community potluck table–main courses, sides, snacks, fruit, salads, sweets–anything is welcome. We will also need plates, cups, napkins, utensils, etc. but check the Facebook sign-up so we don’t end up with too many. And if you have an ice chest to help keep beverages cool, fill it with ice and bring it along. Please RSVP in the discussion section on Facebook (see below) with what food, beverage or picnic supplies you plan to bring.
CAKE CONTEST: Instead of an official birthday cake, there will be a competition for everyone to show off their baking skills. All cakes and cupcakes designs with a Baggins Birthday or Middle-earth theme will be entered into the contest. Put your creative thinking caps on!
You can find detailed event information and a section to RSVP on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/events/8264139026978984/ Please read the About info, and open it to reveal more because there is a lot of info in there, including driving directions. If you don’t do FB, RSVP to Garfeimao@TheOneRing.net with what food or other supplies you will be bringing.
WHAT TO BRING (Besides food): As you can see from the above image, portable chairs, pop up tents, blankets, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses are all standard. Bring a cloak because it can be surprisingly cool some years.
COSTUMES: Any and all cosplay is welcome and encouraged. You can wear a full set of armor, dress like a Hobbit, or turn to the dark side. If you just want to wear a geeky themed shirt, that’s okay, too. Anything is welcome, but be forewarned, there is usually a costume contest, so be creative.
SKITS: If time allows, there will be a chance to do your rendition of Gollum, act out a scene from the films, read a poem or book passage, or sing a song. So figure out what you want to do and practice ahead of time.
TRIVIA CONTEST: Brush up on your Tolkien Trivia, the competition is usually fierce, but it’s a lot of fun, and everyone is welcome to participate.
Hope to see you all there this year! Don’t forget to check the Facebook page for more info.
Additional note: There is a second Hobbit event planned somewhere in Griffith Park on Sunday. If their signage does not say Baggins Birthday Bash or TheOneRing.net, they are not our Baggins Birthday Bash. This other event will be charging for attendance, and as you know, for the past 23 years, we’ve always been free. As long as you follow the directions to the Mineral Wells location we’ve been at the past decade or more, you will find your TORn Sibs waiting for you.
Also, kids and pets are welcome, we are always a family-friendly event. Dogs must be leashed, and we suggest you bring a water bowl for your pet. It is predicted to be quite hot that day.
In January I was reading a skeet on Bluesky about how people feel after every re-reading of The Lord of the Rings. Do they still feel the same emotions, have the same reactions as they did when they first read it?
Some of the responses reflected that you can never feel or react the same way as you did during your first reading, as everything you were reading was new and fresh to you, which is very true. A much-shared readers lament is that you can never feel the way you did the first time you read a well-loved story.
Several responses went onto clarify that every re-read still affects them, though in different ways. Could this be due to being older? Having a greater understanding of world-issues? Being able to comprehend more nuances from Tolkien’s writing?
For myself it’s probably a combination of all of these, after all, I was only 8 years old when I first read LOTR. The complexities of the world-building have grown on me as I’ve gotten older, and I’m far more appreciative of these now than I was as a precocious 8-year-old. My main reason for reading LOTR back then was to join in with the discussions my mother and older brothers were having about LOTR. My mother tried to get me to read The Hobbit, but I just wasn’t interested: Mum and the boys were discussing LOTR, and I wanted to join in with that. I did say I was precocious 😉
This led to a life-long love of Tolkien’s work. Many of my fondest memories are related to LOTR. My brothers and I saved up to buy our mum a box set of Tolkien’s books when The Silmarillion was published, those books now live on my bookshelf, along with all my other copies. Many of my responses when re-reading LOTR reflect where I was at that time in my life. Re-reading the books my brothers and I bought our mum reminds me strongly of when I first read LOTR and how much I enjoyed discussing them with my mum and brothers. They also remind me of the wonder she introduced us to when she first shared her love of LOTR with us, and how excited we all were to buy her the box set, so she finally had her own copies.
Now, every time I re-read them; I’m constantly finding new insights. I’ve mentioned the world-building, something that all fans of Tolkien’s work love, the themes of friendship, fellowship, enduring love, and simple joys are what resound with me and lead me back to read these books over and over again.
I’ve mainly mentioned LOTR, as since that was the work that the fans over on Bluesky were discussing, but I also regularly re-read Tolkien’s other Middle-earth books. My favourite is The Silmarillion, probably because I’ve always been a bit of a history geek too, so I really love the deeper insight into Middle-earth that The Silmarillion provides. I’ve honestly lost count how many times I’ve read it, and LOTR. At one point I could quote whole sections of it from memory, but that was a few years ago, before children and other RL interests came along. Still, I can remember quite a bit of its lore. Every time I re-read The Sil I uncover deeper meaning, beauty, and sorrow and it draws me firmly into Middle-earth.
I must admit that I appreciate The Hobbit much more now I’m an adult, than I did as a child. Being a quite advanced reader from a very young age, I absolutely hated anything that I felt was “talking down” to children. As an 8-year-old, that’s how it struck me, I disliked the narrator talking directly to me and skipping things they felt I was too young to witness or understand. Now it just seems a quaint way of telling the story and doesn’t distract me from the tale. I find I can more fully enjoy Bilbo’s travels “there and back again” a lot more from an adult perspective, and I notice and enjoy the nuances far more than I did as a child. Maybe that’s just me.
I know many fans that have come to Tolkien’s works via Peter Jackson’s movies, and, more recently, via Amazon Studios’ The Rings of Power TV. One of the first questions I was asked when I finally crept out of Lurkwood and joined our Message boards was if I was a “book-firster or a movie-firster”. The question wasn’t asked to belittle me, it was asked out of genuine interest as to how I discovered Tolkien, and led to a truly enjoyable discussion about Tolkien’s work and how wonderful it was that more people were discovering his work due to the release of the films. That, while I enjoy the films, the books will always hold the number one spot in my heart, and it’s this first love that draws me back to Middle-earth over and over again.
We’re seeing this again with the TV series, with people finding out about Middle-earth for the first time and wanting to know more. We regularly have new members join our Discord chat, wanting to know about Tolkien’s books, which order they should read them in. Then they share their joy with us all as they read the stories. I have no doubt that we will see another influx after The War of the Rohirrim is released in December.
We are so lucky today to have so many more adaptations set in Middle-earth. As a child the only film I ever saw was the Bakshi Lord of the Rings. While I left the cinema with many questions for my mother, over changes and omissions, it didn’t rob me of my original love: the books. I did immediately re-read the books, and was surprised at how Bakshi’s film, while not perfect, led me to a greater appreciation of the written work.
It’s wonderful, and a privilege, watching others begin their journey into the wonder that is Middle-earth, and having new memories added to my own ongoing journey. As I, and others, have found, I am sure that those who have come to discover, and love, Middle-earth through the recent adaptations will discover the greater realm that awaits them within the written works. At least, this remains my belief and hope.
I wish them well as they embark on their own journey of discovery, of deeper understanding and wonder of the amazing world that we’ve been gifted by J.R.R. Tolkien. This wonderful Middle-earth. I envy their new discoveries, their first steps into this immense literary world, but rejoice that they are joining our Fellowship. Welcome!
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
