Celestial Cab 1981

Boris Vallejo made "Celestial Cab" at some point, probably with oil paint. It's got this super-smooth finish, almost like airbrushing, which totally hides the artist's hand. I get lost in those clouds above the cab: swirls of teal, salmon, and ochre, a wild dance of colour. It's all very science fiction and fantasy, but also very grounded in painting tradition. It's like, how can you make something so unreal feel so real? And then there's the city below, shrouded in mist, with that iconic skyscraper piercing through. It's like Vallejo's saying, "Hey, even in the future, we're still gonna have cities, but maybe we'll have flying cabs too!" It’s a playful take on art’s ability to imagine other worlds. Vallejo probably looked at someone like Frank Frazetta, another master of fantasy art, for inspiration; both artists really knew how to make the unreal believable. Art, at its best, keeps this conversation going, each artist riffing on what came before.