Sunday, January 13, 2013

Abstracted Super Friends

Admittedly, I am a bit of a geek.  I have a decided fondness for sci-fi, fantasy, and comics, all those "geek culture" things.  My knowledge in this area is rather scatter shot and no where near to in depth.  This said, I had been watching some of the Justice League animated features on Netflix and they got me thinking about the old Super Friends shows I loved as a kid.  A thought began to grow about doing a series of paintings based on these iconic DC characters.  But did I really want to do straight up portraits?  Which incarnation would I pick?  I kept the idea in the back of my mind for a while, then one day while walking to the Seattle Art Museum it hit me, why not do abstracts of them.  A series of imagery based on impressions the characters left on me.  The result follows.


Aquaman


Aquaman, the whipping boy, punch line of the Justice League.  I admit he is one of my favorite heroes. I've always loved the water and ocean, and the idea to be able to live below in the depths of the sea as well as on land was an idea that really appeals to me.  I also have always loved the color orange. 

Batman


The Batman, truthfully I think it's become cliche, trendy to say he's the best.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Bat, the old TV show, the earlier movies and more so the latest series of movies.  But I tended to like the side characters more than the Bat. Truthfully more of a Nightwing fan.  With Batman, his world as I see it is wrapped in darkness.  His few bright spots get blotted out by the darkness.  On the surface as Bruce Wayne everything looks tidy and put together, but the Bat's night is a chaos devised by his rogues gallery.

The Flash


The Flash, for me, is tough to pin down.  I haven't read any of his books so I only really know him as a blur of yellow and red. 

The Green Lantern


Again, not a lot of familiarity with the green lantern corps.  In this I wanted to show how there are many lanterns.

Superman


The greatest superhero of all.  It seems he gets shoved to the background lately, because he's such a "boy scout" compared to the bat brooding in the dark.  Superman's strength is in the light.  He seeks to show us how we can be better.  I loved Superman as a kid, Christopher Reeve's Superman was great.  Then I became a broody sullen teenager and Superman's optimism clashed too severely with my cynical world view.  I've begun to grow in appreciation for Superman once again.  For all the character reasons I was originally turned off.  It takes more strength to stay in the light, not to mention help lead others to the light as well.

Wonder Woman


She's a wonder, Wonder Woman. The young princess who leaves her utopian island home to help mankind.  I loved the old TV show, ah Linda Carter.  The lasso of truth, and bracelets that could deflect anything.  She's a lot like Superman in that she chose to be optimistic about humanity, where we're going, and fight for our good.