Ray Bradbury, painter

The author of "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles" didn't always reach for a pencil. He used to reach for a paintbrush. He talked to Hero Complex's Geoff Boucher:

"Painting has been part of my life since I was a child," Bradbury told me Thursday when we spoke by phone. "My Aunt Neva went to the Art Institute of Chicago and she took courses there and she took me to see the paintings. I began to paint in the 1930s and 1940s and I did a lot of amateur work over the years. I visited art galleries everywhere I went in the world.... My artwork doesn't inspire my writing, it's my writing that inspires my artwork."

The above painting, which Bradbury did in 1948, is about to be issued as a giclee print. Called, unofficially, "Dark Carnival" -- for the short story collection whose cover it eventually graced -- it will be printed in a limited edition of 200. The 18-by-24-inch prints, which Bradbury will sign at the bookstore Every Picture Tells a Story on Oct. 24, cost $300.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Image: Ray Bradbury

Comments

[Chad Sayban]

Wow! That really is a powerful image. And it is so Bradbury!