Art
Size / / /

Strange Horizons Gallery Presents...

Ben Strickland -- Fantastic Metaphors

The chief lesson I chose to take away from art school involved a hearty respect for symbol and metaphor as tools of expression, a lesson that was nicely suited to my fondness of fantasy and science fiction. If these genres are to be of any use to us, they would do well to serve as a screen for the mundane rational world of matter and sense-data. Dragons, grails, fairies, and even magic rings are meant to hold some implicit meaning for us to carry about as we go on with our lives. If I'm wrong, then I'm not only wasting my time, but our mothers were right to throw out our comic-books when we weren't looking.

Pretensions aside, I get a kick out of juxtaposing the conventionally beautiful with the conventionally ugly. It's a short trip from beauteous damsels and dragons to models and bats, models and spiders, and so forth.

When I'm not trying to make art, write stories, or both, I try to maintain my status as a permanent literature student. Though I sometimes flatter myself that following art and literature is a noble pursuit, it actually just beats the heck out of workin'.


Visit Ben's Web site to see more of his artwork.

Imine in Repose ©Ben Strickland 2002

Tour Ben's work, piece by piece. View thumbnails of Ben's work.

If you are interested in submitting art for the gallery, please read our submission guidelines and then contact us at art@strangehorizons.com.


 

| contents | articles | fiction | gallery | poetry | reviews |
| editorial | archive | bookstore | links | submit | about us |

editor@strangehorizons.com     webmaster@strangehorizons.com



Ben Strickland splits his time between art and literature, two disciplines which he tries to fuse by doing illustrations. Visit his Web site to view more of his work.
Current Issue
4 Nov 2024

“Did you know,” the witch says, “that a witch has no heart of her own?”
Outsiders, Off-worlders {how quickly one carves out a corner of the cosmos, / claims a singular celestial body as [o u r s] in the scope of infinity}
Lunar enby folks across here
Wednesday: The 2024 Ignyte Award for Best Novel Shortlist, Part Two 
Friday: A Place Between Waking and Forgetting by Eugen Bacon 
Issue 28 Oct 2024
Issue 21 Oct 2024
By: KT Bryski
Podcast read by: Devin Martin
Issue 14 Oct 2024
Issue 7 Oct 2024
By: Christopher Blake
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 30 Sep 2024
Issue 23 Sep 2024
By: LeeAnn Perry
Art by: nino
Issue 16 Sep 2024
Issue 9 Sep 2024
Issue 2 Sep 2024
Issue 26 Aug 2024
Load More