CASE STUDY: JULIAN CALLOS...

Julian Callos is an American illustrator and fine artist who has been a strong inspiration of mine for many years.

In September 2011, Julian created an exhibition of work called "The End". The theme of the exhibition surrounded the idea of plants and nature and space taking over and bringing demise and deformations to animals and humans.

Photos of part of "The End" gallery display

"Ouroboros"

"Feral"

"Fallout"

"The End"

This collection of work shows a great contrast between natural beauty and deathly control. Callos has kept his familiar stylised male characters and his anatomically correct animals but through the use of selective colour and line-less paint overlays, he has really built up the impression that these natural creations are bursting out of living objects with quite a ferocious force.

Also, in June 2011, Julian entered a piece of sculpture into the annual 'Terra Obscura' exhibition hosted by the Upper 600s art collective. Here he took inspiration from Bower Bird mating traits and Cordycep fungi. It was from his blog where I first discovered these amazing fungi.

"Host"

Description accompanying this image on Julian's blog: "For this piece I was inspired by bowerbirds and cordyceps (look them up...they're both really interesting. If you've seen the BBC/Discovery Channel series "Planet Earth", you might be familiar with them). I liked the idea of a bird building and decorating a structure to be an attractive host for a potential mate, while at the same time that bird is a host to a parasitic fungus."

Seeing another artist use similar factual inspiration gives me a clearer idea regarding where all this new information should lead me. It also gives me some warning as to not what not to create. I don't want my work looking too similar!