Illustration Friday: Launch -

"Ancient Launch Pad of Tanak"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... anachronistic, obsolete,
counting down to the salvage torch ..."
- Unknown

Nowhere to go -

"Into the Transfer Booth"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... Louis Wu found a transfer booth,
inserted his credit card in the slot and dialed ..."
- Larry Niven, from Ringworld

Play time -

"Imaginary Cover for a Henry Kuttner Novel"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

As I was resizing this old digital drawing some of the more abstract, sci-fi paperback covers of the 1950's and 1960's came to mind. In particular, I began thinking about Henry Kuttner novels (I've read more than a few) and thus attached this image to him. A quick search elicited few illustrations in this vein but it still feels right somehow.

Say what?

"The Inter-Galactic Translator"
digital collage by Mick Mather

From "The Day the Earth Stood Still" to "This Island Earth" and "Forbidden Planet" I've always wondered about such things as Intelligent Communication between species, robots and computers. After these classics of the 1950's things only got more and more curious for me in this regard. So, here we have my fertile imagining of one instrument that makes it possible. Inspired by The Krell and their giant knowledge machine in Forbidden Planet my only next guess is about the scale of this particular translator.

You can't hide from the infrared beacon -

"Night Light"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I was playing around again this afternoon, wondering what to do with a very, dark photograph that may have been taken in very low light or at night. My mind was wandering off into the realm of infrared sensors, night vision technology and motion detection imaging as it might occur in, let's say, a sci-fi thriller such as The Terminator. Or, how about the original Star Trek - The Motion Picture? I can almost hear the voice of V GER in it's humanoid embodiment - taking the form of Llia, a Lieutenant on the Enterprise portrayed by Persis Khambata - that says "carbon units have infested your planet - must eliminate all carbon units".

Have I tricked anyone but myself?

"The Amazing Elizabethan Cloak"
$50 Unframed - LUCAS GALLERY
digital collage by Mick Mather

I continue my experiments with fractals and attempts to wed some very interesting flames to my photography or digital drawing. At the same time, I'm continually aware of being seduced by the technology of mathematical sets that make the work possible. I've mentioned this before in relation to ending up with a sci-fi look to the work - perfectly fine in that realm - and fractals can be very, very beautiful all by themselves. There are a lot of artists who do little more than enter a mathematical formula and wait to see what the fractal generating software provides. While I have no problem with it as a legitimate creative process using tools that are another flight up the technogeek high rise, it's my own way of working that's at risk some of the time. This post might be a good example ... have I allowed myself to succumb to said seduction? Am I only fooling myself by referencing an English Queen and the habiliment from two centuries ago?

Thursday Challenge: Scary -

"Paraphyletic Sawfly Emerging"
$50 Unframed - LUCAS GALLERY
digital collage by Mick Mather

Yes, I'm still messing about with fractals. The original flames that comprise tonight's post sure remind me of some kind of creepy crawly thing. My initial thoughts on this were of the movie Alien and all of the wonderful frights the first, and best, of the series of flicks gave all of us. It also seems to fit right in with my sci-fi Outer Dust Rings blog - but I'm using this for Thursday Challenge instead. The theme for this week is scary and these little buggers make my skin curl just thinking about them!

Thursday Challenge: Colorful -

"Colorful"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

This title of this evenings post is the theme at Thursday Challenge this week. I knew that I had a handful of photographs that would quite likely be usable, and yet, I began messing about with a failed photo that was almost totally black save for the red spot. Primary red at that - so, I went about tweaking and lightening and brightening and layering and filtering and...phew! This is what happened by the end of the process. As the piece developed, a number of other versions, equally satisfying but less colorful, were created. One of these alternate images can be seen at my newest blog, a collaborative, sci-fi creation of an imaginary world known as the Outer Dust Rings.

Like I'm not busy enough already?

"The Mirror People Cause A Commotion"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I have some old work that's been nagging at me to put a book together. This will be a sequential novel in the form of a travel guide - the sort that a tourism office might send you through the mail to entice you to make them your vacation destination this year. At the same time, this is a science fiction tale of a newly discovered planetary system that's actually a part of our own. Toward that end, the piece you see posted tonight will, eventually, be reposted at my new blog with some sort of a story attached to it. I've already begun this new adventure with another set of artistamps, a block-of-4 commemoratives. Like I said in the title to this evenings post - I don't already have enough to do!