Bewitched: Oh, My Stars!
Available as a t-shirt: http://www.redbubble.com/people/raycaspio/works/8455010-oh-my-stars
I love Bewitched and I'm not afraid to admit it. If you've looked around this site at the various Bewitched illustrations, you've noticed. If you've looked around my kitchen at my Samantha and Serena statues, you've noticed.
Bewitched is the first TV show I remember watching. I cried when I had to start Safety Town as a kid because it was going to interfere with 11am episodes of Bewitched. It's one of the last shows I watched with my grandma – the episode was Samantha and the Beanstalk – before she passed away May 23, 2011. The day we got the key to our house in August 2011, I watched Bewitched DVDs on my computer while I prepped the house, alone, for painting. I've watched at least one episode daily since then.
The show is comfort and memory. The show is Elizabeth Montgomery, who will always be one of my favorite actors.
Elizabeth, as Samantha, represented possibility to me. Anything I wanted, I could have if I worked for it. She had the magical abilities to obtain whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, but she wasn't satisfied with that. Her power was in herself: a theme that ran through many of her characters throughout her career.
With this illustration, I finally did Elizabeth justice. I captured what I hoped to capture.
I've been asked why I don't draw modern pop culture figures. Most of them bore me. Modern pop culture, essentially, bores me. I feel little connection to it. There's some stuff I like, but characters from the past interest me so much more. (But, if there's a modern characters someone wants drawn, feel free to e-mail me through the contact form on the side of the page!)
Elizabeth Montgomery doesn't bore me. The cast of characters from this show will never bore me because they're so much a part of me. Oh, my stars, I'm grateful for this show!
Update, March 10th: Last night, I signed the contract allowing more of my thoughts on Elizabeth to be published in an upcoming biography about her, Twitch Upon a Star, by Herbie J. Pilato. It's one of those weird moments where life comes full-circle.