New Exhibit Opens Sunday—

The Graphic World

Of Mark Aldrich

By Shannon Hicks

Visitors to the community room of C.H. Booth Library during the next month will be welcomed into a brand-new world, one created by the Sandy Hook artist Mark Aldrich. “Shards Of Time: Scenes From A Graphic Novel” will be on view through November 24 at the library, and an opening reception will be offered on Sunday, November 4, from 2 to 4 pm.

Mr Aldrich will be at the library during the reception this weekend, during which time the public will have the opportunity to meet the creator of a 15-volume fiction series that concerns the adventures of a group of architectural preservationists. The exhibition will offer panels and text from the first volume, titled The Poison Swamp, and the book covers of the full series, which continues to be a work in progress.

The books have yet to be published, and only the first volume is completed as of now, but the work ahead is not at all daunting to Mr Aldrich. He has already been working on this project, off and on, since the late 1970s. The books, as the name of the upcoming exhibition implies, are graphic novels —fictional stories for adult readers presented in comic strip format, published as books.

“Shards of Time” follows the adventures of Sisters for the Preservation Of Old Landmarks, or The SPOOL Society. Mr Aldrich’s characters are each named for a different country and each book follows one character in particular while the other “sisters” are also involved.

Books open with a story’s lead character presenting a paper to her fellow architectural preservationists. It is through these presentations that readers are introduced to the building the group hopes to save during each book.

Some of the buildings in the series are based on real buildings — the building in The Poison Swamp is based on Woodlawn Plantation in Natchez Valley in Mississippi — while others are composites of several buildings, temples, and even cruise ships. Decision At Dover, the second story in the series, uses “bits and pieces,” says Mr Aldrich, of luxury liners including the Normandy rather than a building to be saved.

The sisters find themselves on new — sometimes dangerous, including fighting evil in the name of preservation — adventures in each story. In addition to struggling with good and evil, each book offers its own subplots. The outlines of all 15 stories have been written, and then it is as Mr Aldrich approaches each individual story that the details emerge. The panels are all pen and ink and magic marker drawings, with colored pencils used for highlighting. Only occasionally does Mr Aldrich add watercolor for additional color.

Mr Aldrich was self-taught until 1986, at which point he began attending art school. From 1985 to 1988 he did coursework in architectural history, course design, illustration, and graphic design at Paier College. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California at Los Angeles and a master’s in history and a library media specialist’s degree from Southern Connecticut State University.

“That was good because I really learned discipline and picked up some skills,” he said. “I learned a lot then.” He also learned a lot through the artist Margo Rockland, with whom Mr Aldrich did an independent study.

It was also in 1986 that Mr Aldrich began sending collections of his illustrations to publishers, trying to get interest in his project. Ideally, Mr Aldrich would like to have the entire series published. Unfortunately there was a lot to learn about the publishing world.

“I would just hoping someone would see in advance what I wanted to do,” the artist recently admitted. “No one was even looking at this project, though. It was far from what publishers generally consider — they don’t look at things while still in the creating phase. I’ve learned my lesson.” He and Ms Rockland remain in touch, and she has been able to advise him on which of his drawings should be included in the Newtown show as well as which ones should be featured when he begins to contact publishers again.

Since the mid-1980s Mr Aldrich has also been involved in freelance art projects. One project was the creation of a mural for the outside of a fish market on Black Rock Turnpike, utilizing the talents of teenagers from homeless shelters and emotionally disturbed high school students in turning Mr Aldrich’s drawings into a larger-than-life painting of an underground scene. Another undertaking had Mr Aldrich working with another group of teens in painting a needle exchange van in New Haven.

“That was a lot of fun, very rewarding,” said the artist.

During the 90s Mr Aldrich was the set designer for Sacred Heart University’s production of Heidi, and for Garskoff and Lieberman Productions, he designed the sets for The Nutcracker and Jack and The Beanstalk.

Mr Aldrich is currently the library media specialist at Garner Correctional Institute in Sandy Hook. With this job and his previous one, at a New Haven prison, his art allows him to interact with inmates through classes. He has been involved in mural projects at both institutions. When he started his career at Garner in 1986, in fact, the first thing he did was organize the creation of a mural, painted by the inmates, called “The World of Books.” When he isn’t working on his “Shards of Time” series at home, Mr Aldrich continues to run the library at Garner, where he also teaches college level speech and communications classes.

The “Shards of Time” exhibition at C.H. Booth Library will be Mr Aldrich’s first showing in Newtown. From 1987 to 1991, Mr Aldrich exhibited his work, including pieces based on illustrations from his “Shards of Time” series, at New Haven locations including The John Slade Ely House, The Daily Café, and New Haven Rehabilitation Center. He has also had his work displayed in Leon, Nicaragua.

He and his family – wife Wendy Wipprecht, and their children Lola and Miles – moved into town in 1997.