Real life can be just as magical as fantasy.
Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell are powerhouses in the art world, specifically in the fantasy genre.
Bell has painted the covers for approximately 100 fantasy and science fiction books and magazines, video game packaging, trading cards for Marvel and DC Comics and a sculpture series produced by The Franklin Mint.
Vallejo has been an equally major force illustrating album covers, books, video box art and motion picture advertising.
The two have been married since 1994.
But while the subjects of their work may exist in far away places, they are actually created right here in the Lehigh Valley. Bell and Vallejo paint in their own personal studio set in the quaint space of their home in Allentown.
The couple and their son, David Palumbo, all have pieces exhibiting in the
collection running through Sept. 9 at the
. Vallejo and Bell will give a talk on their lives and work 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the museum.
Both agree the exhibit pays proper tribute to fantasy art in a way that not only shows the breadth of the genre, but the skill and importance of it in the art world.
“The point is to show how the art going on now is connected,” Bell says. “Victorian painting was very fantasy based. If those painters were painting now they’d be doing these things.”
Bell created her piece in the show specifically for the exhibit.
“I really wanted to do something for that,” she says. “It gives me a reason to spread out a little bit.”
She says the artistic skill in creating the worlds she and her husband bring to life is well-represented in the exhibit, which is also an important factor in elevating the genre from its stereotyped low-brow status.
“We think of what is an expression of power,” she says of the intricacies of the figures in their work. “Does it illustrate what we want to say?”
Both Bell and Vallejo use the human body as a subject of inspiration and are very detailed in the way their figures are portrayed, intertwined with fantastic elements such as dragons, swords and other fictional elements. Many go along with stories of conquest and bravery.
“We use the body as an expression of that power,” Bell says.
Vallejo met Bell through a friend who suggested her as a model for some of his work after one of her international body-building competitions.
“We like to portray women as strong, sufficient women rather then helpless damsels,” Vallejo says.
The two have also done many paintings for advertising campaigns such as Nike, Coca-Cola and Toyota. They also illustrated the movie poster for "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" for theaters.
Vallejo says the popularity of fantasy art coming into the mainstream through movies and popular culture has helped his field.
Vallejo says today's sci-fi and fantasy movies are more skillfully executed and have a more "epic nature."
Bell attributes movies such as "Lord of the Rings," "Star Wars" and "Blade Runner" as adding to the elevated stature of fantasy art in the modern zeitgeist.
Bell says while there can be snobbery in the art world, she only sees this as oppression and would never contribute to those same ideas of elevating certain work above others, even if the couple is at the top of their field.
“No oppressive forces,” she says of their work.
"The World of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell" - a lecture on their life and work - happens 2 p.m. Sunday at the Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley.
- Cost is $5 for members and $15 for non-members.
- The “At the Edge: Art of the Fantastic” exhibit runs through Sept. 9 at the museum.