It's FanArt Wednesday again! This week’s chosen artist is Bryce from Houston, Texas. You can connect with Bryce on Facebook, Instagram, and his website.
Here's a little about Bryce:
1. When did you become an X-Phile?
When it first came out. I think I was in junior high. My brother and the neighbor kids would come over every Friday night, turn all the lights off, and watch it. We'd really freak ourselves out.
2. What is the first episode you watched?
I watched the pilot episode when it first came out. There was a lot of hype, and I was pretty excited.
3. What was your favorite part of the revival?
Pure nostalgia. I'm a 90s kid, and I guess my generation is growing up and the demand for that kind of nostalgia is there. But I also wonder if it's deeper than that. I wonder if people look back at shows like X-Files and Twin Peaks and love them because they were so simple and full of wonder. You had to wait for a particular night of the week to watch it. Now that everything is instant and on-demand and effects are digitized and processes streamlined, I'm curious to see if that sucks the magic out of it. I think we loved The X-Files because it was sort of cheesy. We wanted to believe!
4. What inspired you to create X-Files fanart?
Again, nostalgia. As a pet portrait artist, one of my favorite aspects about creating themes is researching the culture. Like when I made a Twin Peaks theme, I watched the whole series. Same with X-Files. In re-watching the series and drawing the costumes, I was taken back to my junior high self, which seems so unreachable to me now.
5. Who is your favorite character?
Mulder, because he chooses to question science, which we hold in such high regard, especially nowadays. Obviously science is really great, but so is the ability to draw conclusions based on things we can't prove.
6. List your top 5 episodes.
I can't remember their titles, but when I watched the series while drawing The X-Files collection for Coat & Tails, I loved the pilot. I was so excited to watch it again after all these years. There was so much built up back then.
7. Favorite X-Files quote.
Scully: "Mulder, toads just fell from the sky!"
Mulder: "I guess their parachutes didn't open."
8. How has The X-Files impacted your life?
I always read Ray Bradbury books and wished that I had lived in a time when space exploration was a burgeoning field. Imagine being a kid in the 50s and 60s when all that started. The fact that we hadn't explored it yet amounted to a great sense of wonder. Science fiction as a genre blasted off as a result. In my lifetime, there was nothing particularly exciting - culturally - about science fiction or even space exploration. But The X-Files really brought that feeling into my youth. And it was just as cheesy and exciting as those now yellowed mid-century science fiction books.
Thanks, Bryce! FanArt will be back in two weeks. See you next Wednesday with a new FanWorks!