Vampirella #5 1970

Frank Frazetta made this oil painting, Vampirella #5, and look at how the figures emerge from the earthy ground with strokes of warm browns and sandy yellows. It's like he dug them out of the earth itself. I can imagine Frazetta, lost in his studio, building up these forms, layer by layer. He starts with a kind of primordial ooze, then coaxes out the characters with his brush. The musculature of the figures seems exaggerated, almost grotesque, yet it conveys a raw, visceral power. And the dinosaur! It’s like he’s not just painting a scene, but conjuring a whole world. It reminds me of other artists who create their own mythology, like Hilma af Klint. Frazetta’s brushwork is bold and confident, not afraid to leave traces of its own making. Painting is a form of embodied expression, it embraces ambiguity and uncertainty. Frazetta reminds us that artists are in conversation with each other, that creativity builds upon what came before.