The illustration is entitled “I’ll Never Touch You”, which is a lyric from his 1976 song “Breaking Glass”. The illustratioin is comprised of 3 separate illustrations of Bowie layered upon one another but offset and skewed slightly. Bowie, throughout his career, created a multitude of characters and personas that he layered on top of his own true self often revealing aspects of the true personality underneath or quiet often fearful manifestations of himself or the world around him. The arms outstretched upwards, in the illustsration represent the efforts of inspiration and creativity, reaching out skyward, meanwhile the figure looks downward and contemplative. I used the arms upward and the figure facing downward to express the dichotomy of inspiration vs the internal, darker subject matter isolation and alienation that Bowie often dealt with themetically in his songs. The line work is chaotic and expressionistic, which coincides with Bowies constant manipulation and integration of musical styles. As well, I used a wide variety of vivide and bright colors intersperced within the chaotic spaces created from the line work as an intent to mirror the joyous musicality of Bowie’s catalog resulting from this deconstructing and reassembling of musical styles and trends.
Illustration on large format canvas, 30” x 40”. Also available in a limited edition 12” x 16” giclee print. Canvas and limited edition giclee prints available in the online store.