Style Imitating Art: “Grand Canyon From The South Rim” by Robert T. McCall

Before we get started with the first SIA outfit post of 2024, I want to remind you all that Terri has retired as a co-host so we are looking for someone to fill her shoes. If you have any interest in joining us and helping to choose the art that inspires our outfit challenges, please let me or Salazar know either in the comments or via email. It’s really fun!

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It is my turn to choose the first artwork of the new year. I have recently been watching the documentary series How the Universe Works and wanted to feature artwork that focused on outer space. Since I have been participating in these SIA challenges, we styled two other space-themed works of art, the Solar System Quilt by Ellen Harding Baker and the ancient Nebra Sky Disk, and I really enjoyed both of those challenges tremendously. 

So I went a-Googling for “space artists” and discovered Robert T. McCall, an American artist who became famous for his space murals. My biggest challenge was choosing just one painting or mural from the huge gallery of McCall’s space art. I ultimately settled on this piece from his Floating Worlds collection because it appears to be a different perspective of the same view of the Grand Canyon that we just featured in the Fifty-Nine Parks Series SIA challenge. I thought that was a fun little way to connect two seemingly unrelated works of art!

The Artwork

“Grand Canyon From The South Rim” by Robert T. McCall

About the Artist: Robert T. McCall

Born on December 23, 1919, in Columbus, Ohio, Robert Theodore McCall was an American artist and illustrator known specifically for his space and astronomical art.

During World War II, he enlisted as a bombardier instructor in the United States Army Air Corps. At some point during his time in Ohio, he studied at the Columbus School of Art. Following the war, McCall and his wife Louise moved to Chicago where he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. They later relocated to New York where McCall worked as an advertising illustrator and then they finally settled in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

As a passionate space geek, McCall produced over forty works for the U.S. Air Force art collection beginning in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, he worked as an illustrator creating future space concepts for Life magazine which led to an invitation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) fine arts program. McCall went on to work for NASA, documenting the history of the Space Race in his artwork. He also designed promotional artwork for multiple film productions including 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

McCall has been commissioned to create murals for NASA, the National Gallery of Art, the Pentagon, Epcot Center at Walt Disney World, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. His most visible and well known work is The Space Mural, a six-story painting in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. It is seen by over six million visitors annually and is a favorite photo backdrop for tourists. McCall’s work has also been featured on a U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamp set and various NASA mission patches including one for Apollo 17.

Robert McCall died from heart failure in Scottsdale, Arizona, on February 26, 2010, at the age of 90, but his space art will live on forever.

About the Art: Grand Canyon from the South Rim

Grand Canyon from the South Rim is a 1981 oil on canvas from McCall’s Floating Worlds collection. The painting measures 40” x 60” and currently belongs to a private collection. It features a view of the Grand Canyon from a futuristic space perspective with the canyon appearing to be covered in snow. Or maybe it is just fog and clouds casting an eerie white glow over the peaks. If you investigate the painting closely, you will see all sorts of spaceships and other floating things in the atmosphere. There is a vast spectrum of colors with the most dominant being blues and whites. Tans, oranges, and greens appear in the grassy lower right corner and the spaceships provide some bright splashes of yellow and red. I think this is a very colorful and cool interpretation of the Grand Canyon but a very difficult one to translate into an outfit!

Resources/References

• Robert McCall: Wikipedia
• McCall Studios
• National Air and Space Museum: Robert McCall (1919-2010)
• Encyclopedia.com: McCall, Robert

About My Outfit

I chose this artwork with absolutely no idea what I was going to wear to adequately represent it. At first, I was really focused on the deep dark blues in the bottom left corner. These colors led me to pairing dark denim with navy velvet boots. I have not been wearing jeans very much lately so it was a nice change and these boots have been in hiding since 2021 so they were due for an appearance. Once I had settled on flared jeans and velvet boots, I tried an oversized ivory sweater which was cute and comfy but I just wasn’t vibing with it.

And then I spotted this beautiful pastel kimono hanging in my closet. This is an end of summer purchase that I have not had the opportunity to wear until now. I waited and watched and waited and watched and waited some more until this pretty tiered robe went on sale before finally adding it to my ever growing kimono collection. I figured it would hang in my closet until the spring but it seemed to volunteer itself for a mid-winter rehearsal of sorts. The colors and the tiers are so perfect for representing the colors and the strata of the canyon rock that I had to find a way of styling it for cold weather.

When pairing a long flowy robe with flared pants, it is usually best to wear a more form-fitting top that will not interfere with all the flowiness. As much as I love all the flowy things, too many flowy things together can have disastrous results. Creating a column of dark blue as the backdrop for the robe, I opted for a fitted navy blue turtleneck. To represent the snow and clouds, I accessorized with ivory knit arm warmers, hat, and scarf.

Of course, this outfit would not be complete without something space themed so I wore my blue nebula necklace with an old star and moon necklace. My earrings are not space themed but the little glass orbs with their blue swirlies remind me of planets.

It has gotten very cold and snowy here so I also needed a coat. Because it is super fun and colorful and maybe a little out of this world, I wore my Kantha Bae coat. And also because it is the coat I wear almost every day doing my every day things. It might not represent the painting perfectly, but it kept me warm.

My husband absolutely loved this outfit, but I did not. I think I really don’t like jeans very much and that was his favorite part. I do, however, love this pastel kimono and am looking forward to styling it in the spring and summer.

If you want to join us with your own art inspired outfit and be featured in my gallery post on Wednesday, January 17, 2024, please send your photos to me at shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com by Tuesday, January 16, 2024, at 10:00 p.m. EST. In the meantime, be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of this artwork. And remember we are still looking for another co-host for this series. If you are interested, please let us know!

Happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Coat-Kantha Bae / Kimono, Jeans, and Belt-Torrid / Turtleneck-Charlotte Russo / Boots-Kenneth Cole / Scarf-Gap / Hat-Wona Trading / Gloves-Kohl’s / Earrings-Vendor Booth at Smoked Country Jam Bluegrass Festival / Blue Nebula Necklace-Gift from my husband / Star and Moon Necklace-Happiness Boutique