I squeezed in some time to create a piece for Gallery 1988‘s “Another Dimension” show.
The exhibit consists of work by several artists inspired by the classic “Twilight Zone” television series.
My initial thought was to do a piece from the “To Serve Man” episode with a young, gigantic Richard Keil playing the Kanamit that comes to earth with the “cookbook” Lol! Great episode btw!
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But more than the great stories, characters and creatures of the series, the image of Rod Serling narrating is just so synonymous with the Twilight Zone show and one that stuck in my head as I imagine it did with most other folks, I opted to create my own illustration/caricature of him.
A few months back while rummaging thru the flat files of paper in Hallmark’s art store I came across these enormous sheets of vintage rag paper made in india. I bought up a stack of them not really knowing how I’d use them until the piece for this show needed to be completed. The paper is so incredibly beautiful. My photographs certainly do it no justice. Every square inch is filled with different specs, pieces of reused paper including tiny shreds of newspaper in which you can barely make out letters from some long lost article of a tragedy, a story about politics, love or an ad for a movie from Bollywood, who knows, that’s what I loved about it. I thought the rag paper was perfect for this project so I decided to create an image that would be graphic enough to let the paper become an integral part of the illustration. So as you looked at Rod Serlings face you’d get glimpses of the texture and tiny specs of paper that tempt you to look closer…you try to make out what each shred is or says….
suddenly you find yourself in the fibers and tapestry of …”THE TWILIGHT ZONE!”
Tadddatahtun! Hahaha!
Anyway, Rod Serling was a semi short fellow but I wanted to depict him much taller, bigger like his views and opinions on politics and society were.
Above, starting from the very bottom piece, I thought I’d share the entire piece but from start to finish including my first marker doodle, to the full size drawing on my wall ( the illustration is 40 inches tall ), to the final piece, done in white acrylic and appropriately, in India ink.
