My first introduction toJohn Jude Palencar’s art came in early 1998, when I was flipping through Spectrum 3-the Spectrum books showcase the year’s best science fiction and fantasy art-and I noticed a painting entitled "Becoming Human." It depicted a nude man hunched atop a Corinthian pillar. The man held a mask in one hand, and a sliver of a moon hung above a low, flat landscape that faded into dusk. The image was pensive, surreal, and it stuck in my head.

A calm intensity pervades John’s work. Even if he is portraying a clutch of howling monsters, his creations seem as if they are meditating, or as if a magician has cast a spell and turned them into stone. We see them frozen, now and forever; strong, bold figures set against hazy landscapes. That sense of fierce tranquility is part of what gives his paintings such an eerie quality...