Galaxy, Dec.1974
- GALAXY, DEC. 1947 - An acrylic painting on a 16 x 20 canvas board. It appears on the cover of Galaxy, Dec.1974.
For this magazine assignment I was asked to do a cover painting based on an article dealing with Astronomy. It contained lots of theory, lots of mathematics, only a vague mention of an observatory in deep space, and no descriptions of anything. I wondered why the editor had decided to have me paint a cover scene based on an article filled with complex celestial mathematics, instead of selecting one of the stories that would appear in the issue. It seemed to me that the stories would contain more exciting and appropriate scenes for this magazine cover. So, though I was disappointed, I decided that a professional artist should not be limited by a dull subject and I went ahead and did my best focussing on a briefly mentioned space observatory in the article.
As for questioning the wisdom of editors, it's not exactly a smart move to make. I learned that the hard way a little later on. I was given a story to illustrate by another magazine editor, one which I thought was rather simple-minded; in this story, Mankind's yearning for peace on Earth is solved by space explorers returning from deep space. They found a unique plant on an alien planet that emits a narcotic mist into the atmosphere. Breathing the drugged air makes you love everyone and everything. Secretly, the alien seeds are planted all over the Earth and shortly thereafter there is peace on Earth, for all time. When I sent my illustration to the editor I included this note, "Science Fiction writers should be more creative about solving man's problems, turning all of mankind into drug addicts to bring "Peace On Earth," is not an acceptable solution". Although I got paid for my artwork I eventually noticed that the story was not published, and sadly, I never received another assignment from that editor. - So, I learned my lesson, not only did I lose a client, I may have prevented the writer from selling his story to the editor! That wasn't right! I never did it again.
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