Kaleidoscope Kiss

Fan Art
Title:	Kaleidoscope Kiss
Artist:	Shelley Butler
Date(s):	1995
First Published:
Medium:
Genre/Style:
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Kaleidoscope Kiss is an illo by Shelley Butler.

It portrays Spock and Kirk from Star Trek: TOS, and was printed in KaleidoScope #3.

Fan Comments

1995

Okay, so who's got the nitroglycerin pills? My heart goes into palpitations every time I look at this picture. Wow! For once Shelley's over-enthusiasm with musculature goes unnoticed because this picture just shrieks a whole bunch of other things, none of which can be printed in a family magazine... I lent this zine to a non-K/S friend a while back, and when it was returned the first thing I did was gaze soulfully at the cover for a while, breathing deeply to restore order to my disordered senses... Have I mentioned the hands yet? No? Well, perfection comes to mind. The way Spock's arms are wrapped around his captain, and the way Kirk's hands rest passionately over his lover's.... And the way Kirk has abandoned himself to his passion with his eyes tightly closed, his lips slightly parted, his head flung back, exposing the side of his neck for Spock to loss with typically intense Spockian devotion. This picture is a window into two souls and characters. Obviously on display are Kirk's human passion and ability to surrender himself to emotion, and Spock's intensity, his fierce Vulcan instincts that can allow him to love and protect.

Let me breathe and get rational again. Great picture. Shelley! I haven't the slightest idea of how art works, but my guess is that the differing perspectives of this picture were difficult to draw. For example, Kirk's head and neck are flung back away from the viewer, so the artist has to draw the eye up from Kirk's chest and then further up to the ecstasy of his face, ail the while conveying the spatial depth of his pose. And then the opposite had to be done with Spock. since there is a foreshortened perspective on Spock's face because his head is bent forward to kiss his captain's shoulder. This was masterfully done, I don't see any discontinuity or distortion at all, just two incredibly sexy guys in a pose that screams at me to go write a sex scene, RIGHT NOW! Now. all I could wish for would be a matching picture with Spock being the one arching back into Kirk's firm hold... (Oh. Lord, there goes my heart again...) (Oh, Lord, there goes my heart again....)