There's something touchingly innocent about Boris Vallejo's work. It is as if he is channeling the fantasies of a 13-year-old boy without shame, guilt or even self-consciousness. It is that rare artwork that is only about itself. It is like a picture that is run through iterative image generation using only the words "hotter" and "heroic" and "mysterious" over and over until an asymptote is reached. It seems pure and innocence in its singular interest, its lack of subtext, if not in its sexual content.
Never even occurred to me that this art style would be something an adult should be ashamed of, but makes complete sense now that I thought about it. Reminds me of recent space marines 2 drama.
Yes, it's fantasy. Well spotted.
13-year-old me fantasised about working with big deterministic boxes; these days the boxes are much smaller and a little less deterministic, but I'd hope I'm still channeling that fantasy without shame, guilt or even self-consciousness.