Science Fiction Fantasies
Hedonia: Utopia of a Future Passed
What would a Martian’s dreams be like? Well, if there were (are, will be) Martians and assuming that they could dream, their dreams would most likely be like Richard Powers’ paintings and illustrations for science fiction publications. Powers’ illustrations introduced the subconscious fantasies and dream-states of the surrealist art movement to its ultimate partner, science fiction. In doing so, he revolutionized the entire field of science fiction illustration, spurring record sales for his first steady client, Ballantine Press, and spawning countless imitators. Hedonia has a short biography and art gallery of prolific illustrator Richard Powers, whose style defined the look of science fiction paperbacks in the 1950s an 1960s.
Ian Ballantine was the first publisher to recognize [Richard] Powers’ genius. Ballantine engaged him in 1953 to do the now famous paperback edition of Arthur C. Clark’s Childhood’s End. While never a great fan of science fiction, Powers nonetheless found endless inspiration in this genre, and single-handedly revolutionized science fiction illustration. Until then, science fiction illustration had consisted mostly of conceivably realistic representations of alien worlds, but Powers unleashed subconscious imagery that explored the endless possibilities of speculative fiction. Over the course of his almost 50-year career as a science fiction illustrator, he produced an estimated 1,400 illustrations. [via link]
Read my science fiction/fantasy story at my blog:
http://thespellwalker.blogspot.com/2009/11/spell-walker.html