I painted this image for Thomas Easton’s science-fiction story “Down on the Truck Farm” (1990).
In this biopunk future, living vehicles are genetically engineered out of the organic parts of animals:"The genimal's legs were mounted high, above the wheels, their joints reversed; as they ran, they pushed against the tires, spun the wheels on their bony hubs, and propelled the vehicle down the grassy greenways that had replaced paved roads early in the Biological Revolutions."To paint the setting of giant marigolds and pumpkin plants, I set up my easel outside in the garden.
2 comments:
This is really nice! What is the organic material of the "wheels" ? It looks like muscle and nerve? Anything more specific? Also (sorry for so many questions), Did you get a specific description for this illustration, or was it from your imagination?
Tolbert, the wheels described by the author were hard for me to believe. The reason biological systems haven't developed wheels is that it's hard to connect a circulatory system across the axle surface. The quoted passage describes the animal, and I just did my best to illustrate that.
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