Second grade–and yes, I know that I look like a VW driving down the road towards you with both doors open. What you don’t see was the way my ribs stood out like xylophone keys in an old cartoon.
There was never a medium look for me–before I attained my human fire-hydrant physique in my teens I was so skinny that my mother wouldn’t let me take my shirt off at the beach for fear that people would think she was starving me…
Another cardboard construction–this was made for a Saturday morning “drive-in movie” activity for church. Most of our time was spent keeping older kids from sweet-talking Meggie into trading rides with them.
This is also a good example of the viewer interaction I try to incorporate into my work. At times I will render only part of a background or just “indicate” it via simple line work. I do that so the viewer will be able to complete the image in their mind.
I found that my enthusiasm waned for things like Star Trek, Star Wars and Traveller as more background information was added. It was more fun for me to fill in the blanks myself.
16″ X 24″ Acrylic on Masonite. This got very little exposure. I did it in late 1993/early 1994 right as I was going into my “Trap-jaw” palette phase.
I had read Dune several times since discovering the book in 1969 but had yet to find an ornithopter that I liked… so I came up with my own. Using chartreuse as the Atreides green house color might be pushing things a bit, but not nearly so much what I did with one of the moons. According to the book there was a “mouse in the moon” instead of a “man in the moon”; if you check carefully you can find a Mickey silhouette in one of them.
I only had the painting for a year–a good friend took it as down payment on the metallic blue “waterboxer” VW Vanagon that we drove the wheels off in the late 1990s….
David R. Deitrick, Designer 