N.C. Winters Turns Pop Culture Heroes into Religious Icons [Art]

When playing video games becomes our version of tracing the mandala, and Bill Murray quotes serve as our common scripture, it only makes sense that Zelda and Boba Fett feature in our religious iconography. Artist N.C. Winters blends modern characters from '80s movies, classic video games and other pop inspiration with with traditional symbols and 1970s psychedelica to create rich and surreal paintings that explore the line between classic and kitsch.His use of roses and skulls, which stretch back to early Christian iconography, but were more recently popularized by the Grateful Dead (inspiring fleshy murals of tattoos), add another layer to that interplay. The effects are sometimes funny, as in the Caddyshack-inspired piece "The Wisdom of the Llama," and sometimes downright bizarre, as in the Boba Fett-meets-My Little Pony explosion, "Infinite Bounty."

Winters' most recent art show, "Abandoned Menagerie," just finished up at Gallery 1988 Venice in Santa Monica, CA. You can buy some of his prints and paintings from Gallery 1988, and others from his own shop.