John Jude Palencar
Birth Date: February 26, 1957

Artist Gallery
Artist and illustrator John Jude Palencar spent his early years wandering the west side streets and old immigrant neighborhoods in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. After many arduous run-ins with the nuns at the local Catholic school he attended, his family moved to the suburbs when he was in third grade. Eventually entering Midpark High School, John came under the instruction and mentorship of Frederick C. Graff, his high school art instructor, who was also an established artist. After winning numerous art awards and selling a few paintings in high school, John decided to pursue a career in art. He attended the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) on a scholarship, receiving a BFA in 1980. During his college years he worked for the American Greetings Card Company as a freelancer, establishing an impressive list of regional and national clients in editorial, advertising, and corporate art. As a senior at CCAD, he won the top cash award at the Society of Illustrators Student Exhibition and was also presented with a scholarship to the Illustrators Workshop held in Paris, France. For more than twenty-five years he has created both beautiful and horrific images and received honors for his contributions to the field of illustration. These awards include Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators, two Gold Book Awards from Spectrum, additional awards from Communication Arts, Print Regional Design Annual, American Illustration, and six Chesley Awards from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists including the award for "Artistic Achievement". Most recently John was awarded Spectrum's Grand Master Award. His work has appeared on hundreds of book covers for just about every major publisher in the U.S., and in over thirty countries around the world. John has created cover art for such renowned authors as H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula LeGuin, Marion Zimmer Bradley, P.D. James, Charles deLint, R.L.Stine, Octavia Butler, David Brin and Stephen King, to name a few. New York Times bestselling author Christopher Paolini, a fan of John's work, named the lead character's birthplace "Palancar Valley" after John in his NY Times Bestseller “Eragon” for which John also painted the cover. Other clients include Time Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic Magazine, Anheuser Busch, Nat. Geo. Television, and The Opera Company of Philadelphia. Palencar has also worked on entertainment projects for Lucas Arts, Electronic Arts, Paramount Pictures, and Vivendi Universal. John has been an artist-in-residence at the Cill Rialaig Arts Project in County Kerry, Ireland, where his personal paintings were included in a special exhibit entitled, “ÒImages of Ireland” held at the National Museum in Dublin. He has also exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions and has been the visiting artist at several colleges and universities across the country over the years. Arnie Fenner of Spectrum states: "John Jude Palencar is a rarity among modern artists, mixing meticulous technique reminiscent of the old masters with a soaring, darkly surreal imagination. There are touches of Bosch and Da Vinci in his visual allegories of netherworld landscapes and doomed characters." Yes, he still lives and maintains a studio in the Ohio wilderness with his lovely wife, Lee, and two sons Ian and Kit. He is now actively engaged in battling rogue chipmunks instead of nuns. "Not Flesh Nor Feathers" was painted for one book cover in a series of books by author Cherie Priest. Palencar painted the covers for all three books in the series. The book description for "Not Flesh Nor Feathers" gives us a deeper understanding of the painting: "...Deep beneath the riverbank, the evidence of a terrible crime has been covered up twice. When a TVA dam falters and the river swells, panic rises downtown. As the Tennessee creeps over its banks, it dredges up death from its own polluted bed. Twenty-nine victims of a long-ago slaughter walk when the water rises, patrolling the banks and dragging the living down to a muddy grave. No one remembers how they died and no one knows what they want. They wait for the water to lift them so they can prowl for the justice that was denied them ninety years ago. But in ninety years a city's shape changes, and where justice can no longer be found, vengeance may have to suffice."