It must be the ultimate accolade for any Star Wars fan.
The original Luke Skywalker himself – actor Mark Hamill – recently tweeted his enthusiastic appreciation of Artmarket Gallery artist Craig Davison.
‘I LOVE Craig Davison,” he said. “In my 5-year-old mind’s eye that dishtowel around my neck made me look exactly like Superman!”
And the star, who at time of writing has nearly 2.84 million followers on Twitter, added the perceptive hashtag #TheWonderOfChildhood.
Which just about sums up Craig’s work – his images are inspired by his own carefree childhood in Sheffield, during which he wore out many a dishcloth turning himself into superheroes.
“Children play such a big part in my paintings,” he says. “The first one I did was inspired by my own childhood memories of me pretending I was a native American. At primary school, I was convinced I was a Cherokee. Turns out I’m not!
“It’s important for us to reconnect to happier times. Adults deal with a lot of stresses, and if they can look at a picture and remember those days when they had few stresses, that’s what I want them to be left with.”
The generation that grew up with one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time, Star Wars, will certainly be inspired by the two latest pieces of Craig’s work on offer from the Artmarket Gallery, Nooooo!! and Kkhoooow – Kkhooow.
Both are classic Davison pieces in that they portray children acting out scenes as their favourite hero or film character, while the shadow they cast is the actual characters themselves, in this case, the pair at the very centre of the Star Wars story.
In Nooooo!!, a pair of young rascals re-enact the iconic ‘No, I am your father’ moment between the former Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Luke Skywalker in 1980’s Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.
Meanwhile, in Kkhoooow – Kkhooow, a young man in sneakers and a parka uses his asthma inhaler to imitate the famous wheezing breathing of the villainous Darth Vader.
Craig was delighted to be a special guest at the recent Return of the Garrison Star Wars event at the National Space Centre, alongside Warwick Davis, who played Ewok Wicket in Return of the Jedi, Julian Glover, who played General Maximilian Veers in The Empire Strikes Back, and John Simpkin, who played Klaatu in all the Jabba’s Palace scenes in Return of the Jedi.
Both Nooooo!! and Kkhoooow – Kkhooow are available from the Artmarket Gallery in two different formats – as a signed, numbered giclée paper limited editions on museum paper with deckled edges, float-mounted and framed; and as a framed canvas edition hand embellished by Craig Davison himself.
Craig’s new work always sells out quickly – we suggest you snap up these beauties before Mark Hamill does!
