Thoughts on art, Star Wars, and memories

This all kinda flowed out on Facebook a little while ago as I went to write a quick status update... I now feel it might be better suited for the blog so I am coping it here...

Between my blog post earlier today and the fact I have Return of the Jedi playing right now while I am prepping MORE personal pieces based on Star Wars ...it all got me thinking...

When the prequels came out I heard a lot of people basically screaming, "George Lucas killed my childhood." ...or something to that effect. I heard similar with the Transformers movies and the most recent Indiana Jones. To be frank... I call BULLSHIT. I remember the surprise and excitement of realizing Boushh was actually Leia in disguise; the shock of Vader's confession to Luke after their battle at Bespin; the joy of seeing the myriad of aliens and astounding space battles; of Yoda, the Rancor, the Wampa, the Tauntauns, and Bossk... I remember is all and it is still exciting. It is still as exciting as when I was 3, 6, and 9 years old. One of my earliest memories is seeing A New Hope in the theaters.

There is NOTHING and I mean NOTHING anyone can do to take those memories go away or to change the way I feel about ALL of the Star Wars movies. Lucas or Disney can add 1000 pink unicorn Ewoks to the battle of Endor and it will not effect my memories and my feeling of Star Wars. If your memories and feelings can be so easily swayed... I question if they were ever as deeply felt as you claim them to be. Besides, the movies and the franchise (up until recently) are Lucas' and he had the right and the capability to do what ever he wanted with them. We have no more right to dictate what he does with them as does anyone else have the right to dictate what we do with our own creations.

It has been well over a year since I stopped collecting Star Wars action figures. During this past year I have been able to approach Star Wars in a new way and it has slowly been changing how I look at my own art and the things I want to make. Not sure where this is all going, but I think I know where I want to play for a while with my art...
 

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com