I was very excited when Rich told me that he was getting a copy of Star Wars Art: Visions, and that he wanted me to do the review for MTR. The book is a compilation of art by well-known artists (in the art world at least) giving their take on the Star Wars Universe. We are talking about work done on large canvases using oil, acrylic, and watercolors. This is not your average Star Wars book.
I am not an art critic nor do I really know much about fine art, but I do know what I like and I think when looking at a book as subjective as this, choosing one idea to focus on is best. I decided to look at each image and try to determine what piece of the Star Wars Universe drew each artist in. What was their go to memory or the image they thought of first when Star Wars popped into their mind. Did they love Darth Vader and the Dark Side? Lightsabers? Seeing Leia half naked? Could they get past the physical actors and jump into the fantastical, or were their memories based solely in reality?
Visions is a big mix with a lot of straightforward Star Wars images mixed in with some really out there stuff. As your average Star Wars fan, it was jarring to see a painting of George Lucas wearing what appears to be a black Karate gi in the Mos Eisley Cantina, but not as unsettling as seeing Darth Maul as a baby. On the left hand page you find a really cool painting of Boba Fett, and on the right hand page, what can only be described as a Darth Vaderish Santana album cover.
Without giving away all of the images, I would definitely say that the next time you are in a book store, pick this book up and sit down in a chair or on the floor and go page by page until you reach the end. You don’t know what’s going to catch your eye, but you will find an image that you really like, probably several.
To close, I would like to say that my favorite image is the cover. A close up of Darth Vader’s helmet, the rain beading up over his face. Very cool.
