The Art of John Solie
My pal Renee has a Brandon Bird print of an epic sea battle between a whale, a giant squid, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex in her bathroom. She is, rightfully, very proud of it.
This reminded me of a local Tucson artist named John Solie. Among other things, he did magnificent acrylic paintings that were used on covers of TV Guide during the 70s and 80s, my cultural imprint years. He also did paintings upon which movie posters were made..movies like Soylent Green, The Invisible Boy, Shaft in Africa...
The coolest thing in the world is that you can buy the ORIGINAL paintings that were made into magazine covers and posters and whatnot. I mean, how fucking cool would it be to have original TV Guide paintings? If I had an extra $2050, I would totally buy the Tom Brokaw in Beirut in the 80s painting *scroll to the one at the bottom).
I mean, this is the guy who did the NASA portrait of the doomed Space Shuttle Challenger crew! And what's even better is that you can commission him to paint your own portrait. And I totally want a family portrait done in the best TV Guide style.
At the very least I want to visit his studio. He lives right here in town and even lists his home address and phone number on his web site. John Solie--like Brandon Bird--is one of the true great artists of our time.