Dream come True

“Dream come True” uses images of Charles Atlas cut from 1950’s men's magazine “Blighty” that have been coloured with paint pens to deliberately blur the lines between the tough guy and the body beautiful. In the 1950’s the LGBT movement did not exist, and the law tolerated only heterosexual relationships. This piece is a celebration of the artist’s LGBT friends and their struggle to find love and understanding in a society that still too often stereotypes and categorises people. The process to achieve the final pieces is a long journey from the original idea searching through 1950's magazines to find the source material to build a collage of words and images. The collages are then hand painted with wash and paint pens to add colour and detail imitating the original feel of printed magazines. The finished collages are scanned, enlarged and produced as digital Giclée prints on fine art paper in editions of only 10. The final but most labour intensive of the process is adding the thousands of crystals and gems. The resulting art pieces are colourful, textural and vibrant with a strong message.