{"id":319,"date":"2008-05-02T21:45:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-02T21:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2008\/05\/02\/john-berkey-sf-hall-of-famer\/"},"modified":"2014-12-14T18:48:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-14T18:48:14","slug":"john-berkey-sf-hall-of-famer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2008\/05\/02\/john-berkey-sf-hall-of-famer\/","title":{"rendered":"John Berkey — SF Hall of Famer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p> $\"\"$ <\/a>Well, not yet anyway. Sad news this week, well-chronicled by now \u2014 one of sf\u2019s finest artists ever, John Berkey, passed away on Tuesday. Irene Gallo<\/a>, Arnie Fenner<\/a>, Bob Eggleton<\/a> and others have posted nice remembrances of Berkey. I\u2019m definitely one of the legions who revere his work, which I believe is more influential now than it\u2019s ever been. Jane Frank\u2019s THE ART OF JOHN BERKEY is one of my favorite art books and although Berkey was best known to many of us for his acrylic & casein sf images, he was a master of traditional landscapes, as well. The guy\u2019s work is timeless, and I wish I would\u2019ve met him in person.\n

So as for the title of this post \u2014 here\u2019s a thought: anyone out there a paid member of the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle<\/a>? If so, then you have the power to nominate creators for induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame<\/a>. Every year, a list is compiled from the suggestions of paid members, and that list is given to the seven jurors who then deliberate the merits of those individuals, and decide which four get inducted every yesr. I was honored to be one of the jurors for this year\u2019s class, and we selected legendary artist Richard Powers<\/a> as one of this year\u2019s inductees. Happy as I am about that, I was secretly disappointed that Berkey was not even on the preliminary list given to us. I knew he was in failing health at the time, and I had hoped to lobby for him before he passed away. This year\u2019s HOF class of Powers, the Ballantines, Rod Serling, and William Gibson will be inducted on June 21, but it sure would be nice to see Berkey in next year\u2019s class, amongst the sf immortals, where he belongs.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"