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Ellygator β Spock I
Published: 2009-12-23 20:33:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 6426; Favourites: 182; Downloads: 598
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(1989) 9"x12", pastels and charcoal on vellum.Who says doing your taxes is all bad? While digging around a pile of old papers I came across a small folder of ancient art and found several nice portrait drawings of Mr. Spock I did in 1989.
I guess I did all right 20 years ago and actually doubt I could still make that much out of a bunch of pastels these days.
I really went for a kind of pulp magazine appeal with the whole set: gaudy colors, spacey backgrounds etc. And for this drawing I think Spock's unusually happy disposition was based on a TV still of him hanging in a tree and laughing his head off while under the influence of some alien spores and the lovely Jill Ireland...
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Comments: 155
Yes, loved drawing him that way! Thanks!
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This is wonderful.Β I'm a first-generation Trekkie, though it took me years to admit it.Β I turned 13 the day the third episode aired in 1966.Β Β I even have a 5" by 7" autographed studio still of Kirk and Spock.Β I think Leonard Nimoy is handsome, and it always bothered me that we rarely got to see his wonderful smile.Β But I had mixed feelings about the "This Side of Paradise" episode.Β My other teenage crush was on David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.Β Β I thought it was patently unfair that Jill Ireland (then Mrs. McCallum) got BOTH of them!
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Thank you so much! It is so cool you were around when the series actually aired. I was born in 67, so I caught it during the re-runs.
I think Spock was always my favorite character, because as a teenager I was more of an introverted person who felt uncomfortable being overtly emotional around others, and I enjoyed school - science, learning, relying on your knowledge and being able to understand the world around me by using my mind. Spock made those things not be dorky, but really, really cool.
I remember David McCallum mostly from "Sapphire and Steel", which was such a cool series, and I hadn't even though that Jill was a connection, but of course you're right.
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I was going through my Deviant Art messages and found this thread again.Β
For years folks said Spock was a role model, but I think it was more that we found he was like us, we didn't necessarily change ourselves to be like him.Β
My favorite Founding Father is Thomas Jefferson and I know the gentleman who portrays him at Colonial Williamsburg.Β One of the other character portrayers was reading a book about Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism.Β Richard told Bill that the book's author theorized TJ had Asperger's and Bill took it personally, that Jefferson definitely was NOT autistic.Β That book was written by the father of an Asperger's patient, and not long afterward another Asperger's parent wrote that he thought Spock had the syndrome too.
I understand the need for parents to come to terms with their children's diagnoses, but I sometimes wonder if it's not a disservice to say that those of us who are a little different are somehow "sick."Β Clearly both Jefferson in his world and Spock in his got along quite well.Β Also, by putting folks who are quiet and maybe make lists in the same category with people who have severe autism and cannot care for themselves is trivializing the devastation of the real medical problem.
Maybe the jocks and other extroverts need to realize that they're not the only "healthy" people out there, huh?Β
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You raise some good points there. I think there is a tendency to pathologize pretty much every human way of reacting to their environment that is not considered "normal", which, lets face it in the US is being extrovert, emotionally available and fairly sexualized. Those who are not have easily slapped a label on them, and if the condition is responsive to medication all the better, so now we have a multitude of drugs that treat anxiety that may come with having to act in an extroverted manner when you don't feel like it, therapy to get in touch with your buried emotions (which can only be buried because of some horrid fat trauma in your past, not because you are naturally reserved) and of course the latest craziness, Viagra for women (only it's a psycho-drug that's got to be taken on a constant basis and has a lot of side effects...). God forbid you are just not in the mood cause your partner is pissing you off or you don't want to join the Tinder culture and hook up with total strangers with zero expectation of any kind of emotional connection
I think we need to stop labeling every active child as ADHD and giving it Ritalin, every sad person as depressed and treating them with Zoloft. I think we are basically healthy as long as we don't feel that our way of being makes us suffer or causes us or loved ones pain.
Β
Don't get me wrong, I believe that there is true mental impairment and that we should do all we can to alleviate that, but to rope in every historical or fictional character to represent some medical condition goes a little too far.
First off, Spock was actually falling outside of his true cultural norm of having successfully repressed all emotion by getting attached to his shipmates, experiencing feelings of friendship and care. So if anything he should have taken the Vulcan equivalent of some psycho-meds to suppress his human emotions. Jefferson I think was highly functional, able to interact with his contemporaries in a satisfactory fashion and setting political events in motion successfully. As you say, time people pushed back and expanded the boundaries of normal.
There are other areas where we've done it successfully. Being gay or bi or trans is no longer seen as being deseased. Time introversion got the same respect!
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Thanks for your thoughtful response.Β Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you here.Β I just got the results from my 23andMe DNA test and I only have the "normal" amount of Neanderthal in my genes.Β I've always felt the cooperation of Neanderthals was something we'd want to stress as humans, instead of H. Sapiens Sapiens' competitiveness.Β If you kill off the competition you can't learn from them.Β I think Star Trek reinforced that idea for me because while the ENTERPRISE was well-equipped to defend herself, trade and cooperation were the primary goals.
Gene Roddenberry took a lot of flack for his "obvious" attempt to promote the IDIC for his Lincoln Enterprises (in fact, I did buy two of them).Β But the concept of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations is a noble idea.Β It even showed up as a wall mosaic in one of the movies.
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It's cool that you had the genetic test done. I heard somewhere that people whose ancestors came from any of the western fringes of Europe tend to have a slightly more elevated level of Neanderthal genome, because that's where their population was ultimately pushed.
With all of the current quarrel about immigration and the hopes and fears people have around the topic I think these discussions are as relevant as ever. It shows that we are perhaps more nomadic as a species than the more sedentary lot of us would like to believe. For good and for ill people have moved into other people's territories, and sadly sometimes there were victims and victors, sometimes there were cultural achievements that would not have been possible without different people meeting and mixing.
I agree with you, though, that it would be better for everyone if we could accept diversity and the opportunities that come with it and collaborate even with people who are different from us, rather than feel we need to fight and compete and eradicate what we don't understand.
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I like about science fiction that it allows to explore alternative society blueprints from the one we happen to live in, whether they are dystopian to warn us like Orwell did in "1984" or simply offering us a liberation from our current model, economically, sexually or socially like so many of Ursula L. LeGuin's books like "The Left Hand of Darkness" and others. We can look at gender or concepts of ownership or progress and realize how arbitrary they really are, that alternatives are possible and maybe even desirable.
People who seem to think that they have all the answers, that tell us they are leaders we should follow, because they can make us safe or rich or happy scare me. I prefer people with doubts, it usually makes them more ready to listen to others and consider that differing viewpoints also have merits.
Like you I count people among my friends who are gay, but to me they are as diverse a lot as anyone else. Some are really engaged in the LGBT community, others keep to themselves, and their relationships are every bit as diverse as those of my hetero friends, some committed long-term and stable, some just casually dating, some single and happy or unhappy about it. I am just glad that those who longed for it with can finally get married, though when I listened to my parents they always thought it would be the end of civilized society if that happened...
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Unfortunately the LGBTQ community spent decades being "in your face" to get their equality.Β I lived in NYC and worked and had friends in both fashion and theatre.Β I knew a lot of gay folks but most didn't dress like Elton John or grope each other in public.Β That over-the-top attitude of lots of people in the gay pride movement probably held off their goal for longer that it might have taken otherwise.
Hollywood is more subtle; there are probably 4-5 times more gays on American TV shows than in the actual population, which is about 4%.Β We have a whole generation who really think they'll find LGBTs on their block.Β Nothing wrong with that notion, but it doesn't represent reality.Β Also, there are still many who would prefer to keep their orientation in the closet, and theyΒ have to deal with people who think everyone should be outed.Β If a person dresses as one gender, then use the matching bathroom.Β The only issue I see is in locker rooms, where a lot of jocks (male and female) think that's a swell place to swagger around naked, for whatever reason.Β At least in restrooms you have the privacy of a stall.
I'm still amazed that politicians have been able to convince Latinos that immigration is only their issue.Β People crossing illegally from the Mexican border are less than half the problem.Β Overstaying visas and phony work sponsorships are the majority, and mostly European, Russian and Asian.Β Also, you'd think Latinos in sanctuary cities and counties would WANT police to apprehend and deport the criminals who hide among them.Β If they're living peacefully and lawfully the authorities won't notice them, but the police keep sending the thugs back to commit crimes against their Latino neighbors.Β None of the rich white liberals who voted for sanctuary laws have to deal with the bad element they're protecting.
Oh if Star Trek had inspired more than just the scientists and math geeks!Β TV Guide had a quote from George Takei for the 50th anniversary of Trek that he had wanted Gene Roddenberry to have a gay character, maybe even Sulu himself.Β That was one that not even the Great Bird of the Galaxy would try against 1960's sensors!Β ;c)
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"Looks like the Commander's been infected by alien spores...again"
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LOL! That's exactly where it came from!
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The Spockiest of them all! Beautiful work! I love that pulp fiction artsy look! 
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Thanks so much! That's was exactly the look I was going for!
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I like it. It reminds me of those days in the 60s. Certainly better than anything I could ever do. I am more of a writer. The background is interesting and seems rather suitable.
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Thanks so much! I wanted a little bit of a retro feeling, those bright technicolor hues...
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Oh, Wow.
Very well done. I like this a lot.
Henrik
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Thank you! The whole series was a lot of fun to draw.
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Do you take suggestions for subjects?
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I'm always open for ideas - the rest is a question of both time and interest, but please - fire away!
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Well, have you tried a Klingon theme yet?
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That would be fun, on accord of their elaborate costumes: metal, leather, fur etc...
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XD HIGH VULCAN'S OR DRUGGED I LOVE THEM XD
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LOL! Gotta make them laugh once in a while...
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this one is good. but the spock 3 one, youve done his nose too big lol
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Hyper Spock means the world hath gone insane. ^^
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AWW he looks so cute when he smiles...to bad he barley ever smiled..
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I know, I guess that made it even more precious when he did!
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i know i love the ep amok time when he was like "captin....JIM!!! *smiles* im...pleased to see u captin"
LOL Awww
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Officially envious now 
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Thank you! I remember how much fun it was. It's the only pastel portraits I've ever really tried...
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It is beautiful, it has so much life and personality in it, and movement - it is almost like it is a living breathing thing, rather than an image frozen on paper
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Spock smiling... The 8th wonder of the world.
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Great work! Perfect mixture between Nimoy, Mr. Spock and a laugh.
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Thanks so much!
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Pulp magazine look indeed! But so well caught! 
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Thank you! It was strange finding the little stash just a few months after the new movie had come out...
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Indeed! And I thought that you had drawn them out of nostalgia and I was marvelling at the style that seemed quite different from your actual one.
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Wow! I am blown away! You do Spock! He does look like Obama...but also (do you mind me saying?) Jack Nicholson! But it's wonderful.
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LOL! Must be the infectious laugh - both men you quote know how to lighten up their faces with a big smile! And yeah, I'll post the other three (more somber) drawings, too, by and by.
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The smile makes him look so damn different...and dare I say like Obama? Fricken gorgeous.
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LOL! I can see that, though of course when I drew him, I didn't even know Obama existed...
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