Waiting Dangerously in Rio by Scott Listfield

Rainy Tuesday greetings, collectors! It's Youngna here, very excited to bring you today's irreverent and blue-sky-filled edition, Waiting Dangerously in Rio from Boston-based painter, Scott Listfield. Jen first paired one of Scott's paintings with a poem by James Tait on Personism after coming across his work on Booooooom. Scott took note of the mention in Jen and Booooooom curator Jeff Hamada's conversation on 20x200, and wrote in, with the sense of humor that is also apparent in his images:

Forgive me if there is another "Scott, the astronaut dude," because lord knows I don't want to step on his toes. But if you were indeed talking about me (and I think you were), I'm incredibly flattered you mentioned me (I don't even mind being called 'the astronaut dude'), particularly as someone you would like to see on 20x200.

So we are here today with Scott's edition, which occupies the mysterious place between the Mesozoic era and Stanley Kubrick's imagined future. Listfield paints the strange and unusual present, where both astronauts and dinosaurs roam—though rarely together. In Waiting Dangerously, a suited James Bond-like figure leans on his DeLorean, the famous sportscar released in the early 80s with gull-wing doors that flap open to reveal a fiberglass underbody. The car was made iconic in the Back to the Future series, where the vehicle acts as a time machine, taking Doc and Marty McFly to the year 2015, then back to 1885. As they dart around, the modern and archaic intersect in oft-comical ways, much like they do in this painting, where a fully-suited astronaut serves casual company to the car.

If you've ever visited Scott's website—he is the envy-inducing owner of astronautdinosaur.com—you'll see he also incorporates myriad pop cultural and tongue-in-cheek sci-fi references in between the frequent astronauts and dinosaurs. He writes, "from Lost in Space to the Jetsons to Jurassic Park, it seems that popular culture fostered this space-age perception of the future." So, it makes perfect sense that in his paintings an anonymous astronaut is hanging out at a laundromat with Boba Fett or roaming a city street next to a giant statue of the Notorious B.I.G.; this is simply Scott's version of a very probable and imaginative present.

Before we take off for the day, we want to remind you that your last chance to apply to Hey, Hot Shot! in 2009 is TONIGHT, October 27th at 11 p.m. (EDT)! Our panelists are excited to see the submissions of this edition's contenders, who have entered work from all over the globe. If you want a sneak peek, we've been writing about them on the HHS! blog, sharing entries on Flickr, and will continue to do so until the Hot Shots are announced on November 30th.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to have your work reviewed by our stellar panel, a chance to exhibit at Jen Bekman Gallery and the potential to release work here on 20x200.

We'll be back tomorrow and Thursday with brand new editions, including one from a recent Hot Shot, so see you back here then!