"Inception" Art Print by Thomas Kovach

What can I say? I just really, really like Thomas Kovach's art.  There's a fantastical almost comic bookish element in his work that really connects with me.  So here I am, yet again, reviewing another Kovach art print.  As an added treat this print was inspired by the mind bending action flick Inception. 

Inception

To briefly wax on about one of my favorite films of 2010 (Black Swan still being the leader of the pack), Inception was such a breath of fresh air after being forced to reckon with the likes of Robin Hood, Shrek Forever After, The Karate Kid, Prince of Persia, and Jonah Hex.  Sure, we also had movies like Splice, Toy Story 3 and Predators (which I actually really enjoyed), but Inception was unique in that, not only was it an edge of your seat pulse pounding action roller coaster, it also happened to be a completely enjoyable mind fuck.  I've really got to give credit to Nolan for taking some pretty complicated ideas and making them very easy to comprehend.  To this day, I've never understood how some people could be so utterly confused about the plot of Inception.  And to quickly defend the film from the much cited "Inception has way too much exposition" attack - what did you expect?  It's a film about people who go into dreams within dreams within dreams with each level of the dreamscape having its own rules.  Of course the filmmaker is going to have to take some time to lay out the world for us!  Apologies for the tangent, but I feel like that argument could be leveled at many brilliant and innovative films; dismissing the film for that reason is a complete cop out.  Now let's take a look at Thomas Kovach's art print titled "Inception."

As you can already see, Thomas hits this one out of the ballpark.  And one of the things that immediately struck me about this print was his depiction of Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film).  I really like how he didn't feel the need to try to create some sort of photo realistic representation that looked exactly like DiCaprio, instead we get an artist's interpretation of the character and it's a powerful one at that.  Kovach's Cobb is a broken down man, someone who's been in a fight or three and hasn't shaved since last Sunday.  He's also way more badass looking than DiCaprio could ever appear (sorry Leo, it's true).  In addition to his great character work Thomas does some wonderful things with color.  Using the black of Cobb's suit as the image's background helps create that awesome infinity shot effect and really lends itself to many of the film's bigger themes, including reality/fantasy, identity (always a popular one) and of course Joseph Gordon Levitt's three piece suit.

This print is available for purchase through inPRNT! for $24.99 or $40, depending on the size you want. “Inception” is an open edition giclée and is printed on 100% cotton rag archival paper.  To learn more about this artist checking out his blog, portfolio, and his inPRNT! artist page.  He's also written a great blog post about his inspiration for the image, though be warned there are a few spoilers if you haven't already seen the film.