Painting by Volusia County artist chosen for sale, display at Star Wars convention
DELEON SPRINGS — For as long as he can remember, L. Jason Queen has loved Star Wars.
He still remembers his father taking him to see the first film, retroactively titled "Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope," in 1977 when he was a little over 2 years old.
While Queen, 47, is unable to attend this year's Star Wars Celebration, which takes place in Anaheim, California, Thursday through Sunday, his passion for the franchise will be on display for tens of thousands of attendees to see.
After receiving submissions from around the world, Lucasfilm and Acme Archives chose pieces by Queen and 20 other artists for licensure and display at the convention's art show.
Acme Archives is the official licensee of art products for several movie, TV and gaming companies. Licensing enables artists, such as Queen, to receive royalties in exchange for the company reproducing and selling their work.
Queen's piece, dubbed "Legacy in the Making," focuses on Mandalorians, fictional characters known for their iconic armor.
"It's been an adventure, to say the least," Queen said during an interview this month at his home and studio. "There's certain bells that I want to ring in my career, and that was one I've been working toward since 2017."
The DeLeon Springs man's limited-edition print — the original is oil paint on masonite board — is already a hit. Of the 250 copies available, fans snatched up 179 of them during the pre-sale period that ran from May 2-16. The remaining copies will be available for purchase during the convention, which takes place biennially or when there's a new movie in the Star Wars franchise.
Whipping up a winner
"There's just something I love about them," Queen said of Mandalorians.
The piece features multiple characters including Boba Fett; Jango Fett; Bo-Katan Kryze; The Armorer; Sabine Wren; Din Djarin; and Grogu, also known as The Child, who is colloquially called Baby Yoda.
Queen noticed while watching "The Mandalorian" on Disney+ that the word "tribe" came up multiple times; it got him thinking about Native American totems and, eventually, the Tree of Life sculpture at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
"Then I took certain characters who I really liked from the stories and kind of combined them," Queen said.
Queen, who describes his style as "organized chaos," spent about a month working on the piece.
He cites N.C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish as some of his influences.
Pricey digs: New Disney Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel stay will cost more than a mortgage
A multibillion-dollar franchise: 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe'
"It was it was a long, drawn-out process because you had to have reference pieces," Queen said.
Lucasfilm and Acme Archives required that artists share their reference pieces to ensure the characters were correctly detailed.
Queen put Boba Fett's character at the top of the piece because he's the first Mandalorian seen in the Star Wars franchise – more specifically "The Empire Strikes Back," which Queen recalled seeing when he was 5.
"[Fett] was just this mysterious character who pops on the screen and takes Han Solo away," Queen said.
A family affair
Nearly four months after receiving the good news about his piece, Queen still feels a sense of disbelief.
He said he wasn't expecting to be one of the chosen ones and was just hoping for more feedback on his work from Acme Archives.
Queen interviewed with the company in 2017 when the Star Wars Celebration came to Orlando. He said they told him that, while he did good work, he wasn't ready and needed to work on finding his style.
After receiving that feedback, he changed his plans. Instead of spending all of the $500 he'd brought to the convention on merchandise, he bought one item and used the rest to invest in art supplies.
Christy Queen said she admired the way her husband responded to the critique.
"If it were me, I think I probably would have gone, 'OK, I quit,'" Christy, 47, said.
But the artist's tenacity wasn't new.
In 2004, two weeks after earning his master's degree in painting and illustration from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, Queen suffered critical injuries in a car crash.
He was in an induced coma and spent nearly a month in the intensive care unit.
Once conscious, Queen could only draw a spiral; he said he tries to hide one in every piece he creates. Learning to walk again took a year, and he underwent 28 surgeries over the next decade.
Queen and his family relocated to Florida in 2015.
His family's support was instrumental to his recovery and has continued throughout his burgeoning career.
After telling his wife and children about the acceptance of "Legacy in the Making" into the convention, Queen called his father, Larry Queen, in Ohio.
"We were proud of him, no doubt about that," Larry said in a phone interview. "It made my day."
Larry also remembers taking his son to see the first Star Wars film.
"He sat through that whole movie, never moved," Larry said.
He said he still has several of his son's earlier works on display in his home.
L. Jason Queen said his own son and daughter, 25-year-old Morgan Queen and 18-year-old Maria Queen, influence a number of his concepts.
"They're like, 'Oh, that's cool, Dad, but what if you did this?'" Jason said.
Maria, who's leaving home this summer to attend college, said her favorite work by her dad is of characters from "Stranger Things;" it's also the first piece he had licensed.
Queen said his daughter's cosplay of the character named "Eleven" served as inspiration.
Presently, Queen is working on concepts for Star Wars and Marvel as well as commissioned pieces.
He's also creating his own story with his own characters.
During the pandemic, Queen learned leatherworking, which he's incorporating into a line of pieces collectively dubbed "Spiritus Piratae" or "Spirit of the Pirate."
But the dream job would involve Queen working with a lord, more specifically "The Lord of the Rings."
Visit queenscovecreative.com to see more of Queen's work.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Star Wars Celebration to feature Volusia County artist's painting
