The Thing Artbook Illustration 2017

This illustration for 'The Thing' artbook, probably made in the late 20th century by Robert Sammelin, uses an airbrush-like technique with flat colour, which reminds me of those old sci-fi magazine covers, or maybe Basil Wolverton. There's something about the smoothness of the image that makes it all the more unsettling, especially the way the neck flesh is rendered with these subtle gradations of tone, like a photo negative, or a medical diagram. It's both grotesque and seductive, especially when you see how the teeth are rendered with such stark contrast. Those teeth, though, don’t seem real, they are more like sharp-edged stalactites. It makes me think about Francis Bacon's screaming popes, or maybe some of Philip Guston’s later paintings, where the monstrous lurks just beneath the surface of the everyday. It's a reminder that art, at its best, isn't about easy answers, but about embracing the beautiful weirdness of it all.