Pg. 81
From the Editor |
About the Back Cover Photography by Richard Grieco
Richard Grieco
I am absolutely delighted to be able to present a photographic contribution by Richard Grieco to you as the back cover art for this issue of The Space Cadet Science Fiction Review!
Richard is a highly-talented actor who has appeared in many dozens of movies and television shows and is perhaps best known to the folks of my generation for his portrayal of the character Detective Dennis Booker on the wildly popular TV series 21 Jump Street that originally aired during the late 1980s to early 90s. He was even a Calvin Klein model. No wonder the Butabi brothers idolized this guy in A Night at the Roxbury!
However, what not as many people may know is that Richard is also an absolutely exceptional painter! He has termed his style “abstract emotionalism” and I will tell you, as someone who greatly appreciates abstract art, it is amazing work. Richard has been painting for a long while now and his work is commercially successful. I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with his work by visiting his website at www.griecoart.com.
I discovered Richard’s art on Twitter. I kept seeing tweets of gorgeous, abstract artwork from a fan account that would tag @Richard_Grieco in each tweet. There was definitely a disconnect in my mind that the same Richard Grieco that I knew to be the famous actor might also be Richard Grieco the abstract painter. Eventually, out of curiosity, I clicked on his Twitter handle in one of those tweets and sure enough, it was indeed that Richard Grieco. I then proceeded to be thoroughly impressed by the paintings that Richard creates!
Shortly thereafter, I was scrolling through Richard’s Twitter feed, and I saw a photograph that he had taken in Nelson, Nevada during a film shoot. The photograph is truly spectacular, ethereal, showing some sort of UFO activity high above The Silver State. I knew immediately that it was perfect for this magazine and that it would tie-in beautifully with Joshua Gage’s poem, “Skies over Carson Sink,” which is in Nevada, of course, and also with Neall Calvert’s atmospheric photography.
I contacted Richard about the photograph, asking if I could publish it in this magazine, with full attribution. He responded, generously granting permission, at which point I’m pretty sure that my ear-to-ear grin could be seen from outer space. Just awesome. What a genuine class act — thank you, Richard!
— The Editor
Editor’s Note: Richard’s Wikipedia and IMDB. The photo of Richard is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.