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Experience pop culture in an astronaut's footsteps

Scott Listfield has been painting an astronaut across the world for over a decade. In 1999, the artist began the painting series as a way to explore the the peculiarities of the present day. He was inspired by the dreams of flying cars and living in space of the mid 1900s, and even as recent as 2001. We're not quite there yet, but our world in 2014 is a strange place that we often take for granted.

Listfield says that some of his most popular paintings are those that feature the astronaut among pop culture icons, but sometimes the most poignant ones have him experiencing something deeper about the human condition. "Every once in a while I come up with an idea that reminds us that there are bigger things in the world than ourselves," Listfield says. The painting "Lost Highway" captures the experience of the astronaut traveling in an unknown city, climbing a big hill, and gazing out into the twinkling lights of a city in which he is a stranger. "I have no idea what that feeling is," Listfield says, "but every now and again I want to try and put it into a painting."

Listfield continues to paint the astronaut, and currently there are over 130 paintings in the series. You can see them all on his website.

Images courtesy of Scott Listfield

Astronaut paintings by Scott Listfield

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"Rock the Casbah"