Amalgamate surveys the richly detailed, highly imaginative world of Blaine Fontana. Imbuing his vision with thedivine symbolism of religious myths, worldly folklore and current social dynamics, his works contain a kind of shamanicexploration of meaning that recognizes the totemic quality and power of the image. With extensive experiencewithin the design world, including working as art director for Drifter Industries, graphic designer at acclaimedfashion/lifestyle magazine Metro.Pop, and founding his own creative/design agency Fontana Studios (with his wifeEugenie Fontana), Fontana's work displays a virtuosic understanding of sign and simulacra and their role withinour contemporary visual culture. Straddling the physical and metaphysical, organic and architectural, painterly andgraphic sensibilities, Fontana fuses multiple visual strategies to forge an aesthetic language entirely of his own making.With an introduction by poet Derrick Brown, whose written and performance has won him the California IndependentBook Critics' Award in 2004 and six first-place slam finishes.