Spock's Vulcan Salute Against a Colorful Backdrop — Print & Oil Painting

A hand fills the left third of the canvas, palm out, fingers parted into two pairs. It has been painted larger than the head beside it, warm and solid in front of a background that has nothing solid in it at all, and it is where the eye lands first.

Behind it the paint has been left unresolved on purpose: violet, teal, moss green and dull rose dragged into one another with no horizon and no light source. Floating in that haze to the right of the head is a ghost of the Enterprise, barely more than a saucer and a nacelle in slightly darker blue, faint enough to miss on a first look.

The face is worked far harder than anything around it. Heavy brow, set mouth, crisp ears, and an ochre warmth in the skin that the background never receives. The tunic below is a few wet strokes of pale blue with the silver delta laid on top.

Then there is the lettering. The name has been written straight across the chest in loose blue capitals, which turns the image from a scene into an unapologetic piece of tribute art. It is an odd decision and the picture is better for owning it rather than hiding it.

The raised hand is the Vulcan greeting, the gesture the character carried out of the series and into common use. It sits in our Star Trek collection alongside Spock's Pensive Pose in Gold Geometric Art, which takes on the same face with a ruler instead of a brush.