Sci Fi Friday

Somehow I've Always Known
9" x 12"
Mixed Media
on Watercolour Paper
2011

I grew up in the 80's.

That means that my chances of being a kid completely obsessed with Star Wars was pretty good. And obsessed I was.

My older brother had an 8mm camera and he and his friend used to make stop motion movies recreating the battle scenes on Hoth, strafing missions, etc.

My younger brother had all the toys. All of Them.

For me, the mythology, the archetypes...they got mixed in with every other belief system I was exposed to.

And so we have this painting. I've always wanted to do my own interpretation of classic Star Wars characters but there just didn't seem to be the time. I'm glad I finally got around to it.

Here we see the Princess Leia. She is clothed in green and rather than the young virginal damsel in distress, I have chosen to portray her as someone more wise, more in keeping with a woman born with the genetic disposition to feel the energy of all living things. She is in the midst of a waking dream which she will not remember on a conscious level, but will instead become an instinctive knowing. As events unfold, they will seem destined, as though she had been there before.

Instead of the brassy, 70's child Carrie Fisher portrayed, I have given her a wisdom borne of life under an autocratic thumb, always living with one face in public, but concealing a deep, rich inner life filled with her own thoughts and aspirations, bearing the fate of millions upon her skill at navigating between two worlds.

One day in the future she will receive news that will change the course of an already tumultuous life and rather than balk at it or attempt to explain it away she will state quietly and simply, "I know. Somehow I've always known."

However, let's keep in mind she will also utter such nuggets as, "I'd just as soon kiss a Wookie," but I digress.


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