Tara McPherson has been a well-known artist for over a decade, but to the surprise of absolutely no one she didn’t hit my radar till fairly recently. (It’s like I live under a rock, seriously.) I’m trying to make up for lost time though, because her art is fascinating and lovely, and I love that we’ve got a whole new book of her art to enjoy. Keep reading for a review of Wandering Luminations: the Art of Tara McPherson.
I’d been seeing Tara’s art here and there for years, but I hadn’t focused enough to realize it was the same artist behind all these dreamy, psychedelic, sometimes disturbing but always beautiful images. I finally started paying attention when I saw the Wonder Woman art figure she did for Kid Robot at the 2017 DesignerCon, and realized she was the same artist who painted the astronaut on the cover of the program. After that I wanted to see everything.
Wandering Luminations from Dark Horse Comics is a great chance to do that, and it features a huge selection of her paintings, posters, and sketches. The reproduction of her work onto the page is very nicely done (many of the works are oil on birch, I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to scan and reproduce that and capture the colors so well, and it makes me really, really really want to see the originals.)
The details are fantastic, there’s so much depth in every image, from highlights on the skin to dark, jewel-toned gradients inside the eyes. Every drop of water is carefully rendered. The complicated face paint around the eyes that features in so many of her paintings is just endlessly fascinating.
Many of the images are nudes (the preview images below are all safe for work; the book, not so much) but the topless images feel sensual and decadent instead of titillating or arousing. They’re dreamlike, even when they’re disturbing (especially when they’re disturbing.)
There’s aliens and mythological creatures, and animals from time to time. Many of the images have heart-shaped holes cut out of the chests, and the effect is wonderfully three-dimensional. It’s mystical and introspective and I’m running out of words for “gorgeous.”
There’s a collection of posters and promotional work too: I’d seen her Stellar Revolution cover for DesignerCon, but her work is an excellent match for Metallica, the Pixies, the SXSW Film Festival, Franz Ferdinand, and more.
Her work is hard to describe even if you have a background in contemporary pop art, and for someone like me I can only stare at it open-mouthed going “…pretty!” You owe it to yourself to check it out, this is a fantastic collection of some fantastic art.
