Science Fiction Paintings

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interested in a painting?  please contact the artist: ctisdell166@gmail.com

Growing up in the 1950s, science fiction was everywhere. Films like The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1959, was a favorite of my dad. I have strong emotional memories to this genre, which is full of symbolism. Writers, including Rod Serling, used science fiction to get around censorship by the networks. During McCarthyism, sci-fi writers could talk about delicate issues without fear. As a teen, I was drawn to science fiction paperbacks, which in the 1960s featured the work of skilled oil painters, including the great Richard Powers. These paperbacks atttempted to bring science fiction up from the pulps, to a more intellectual level. Director Francois Truffaut's 1966 cinematic interpretation of Ray Bradbury's classic cautionary tale Fahrenheit 451 is a favorite of mine. I love his use of color, brilliant cast, his attention to the literary component of the story, a spectacular score by Bernard Herrmann, and his use of existing locations in France and England, including an actual monorail, as apposed to the typical studio sets.