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17" x 11", watercolour, 1994


I am a HUGE fan of science fiction and, ever since I was a young child, looking at the conceptual art for and other visuals of the Star Wars and other sci-fi films, TV shows, and books really fires my imagination and has inspired (if not influenced) my artwork a great deal. So this week will be Sci-Fi Week and I'll post the very few "space" paintings I've done.

But the thing is, out of the hundreds of images I've made, there are very few that deal with or contain any science fiction elements. Even this one is a hybrid of 20th Century North American fashion mashed up with the Lars moisture farm homestead on Tatooine. I don't know why I combined this model (from a fashion magazine) with Luke Skywalker's home; back then Star Wars was only beginning its resurgence into the general public's face (and even with the "special editions" being released in cinemas, there was still only "Star Wars," "Empire," and "Jedi") and it still felt like it was a sort of underground thing to do --and I felt I was being cheeky, not geeky.

Also, I don't know where that title, including the weird use of square brackets, means or came from. "Taking a break on Tatooine," I guess...maybe...

The "sand" texture in the foreground was made using the age-old technique of spraying the paint by running my thumbnail along the bristles of a toothbrush dipped in paint. I usually make a rough mask of the areas I don't want affected by tracing that shape on regular paper, cutting it out, and weighing it down with whatever fits (erasers, scissors, pens, etc.).

Like most paintings, this one is tricky to photograph and looks better in person.


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