Cool Stuff: The Original 'Star Wars' Trilogy As Maps By Andrew DeGraff

You always remember the first moment you fall in love with an artist's work. The first time you watch a movie or listen to an album and realize, "I'm going to follow this person for years to come." That moment happened for me with artist Andrew DeGraff on July 9, 2010 at the opening of Gallery 1988's fourth Crazy 4 Cult show.

In that show, DeGraff had a huge series of pieces featuring the distinctive outfits of each member of The Goonies, all framed around what appeared to be a treasure map. However, the more you looked at the map, you realized this wasn't just a map. It was the movie. The work featured all the film's locations linked by dotted lines of how each character weaved their way through the film. It was (and remains) amazing. Since then, the illustrator has done similar work at the gallery for Shaun of the Dead, North by Northwest and now, he's created some new maps for his upcoming two person show with fellow artist Bennett Slater.

Andrew DeGraff & Bennett Slater's gallery show opens Saturday January 5th at Gallery 1988 Melrose in Los Angeles and we're proud to debut DeGraff's maps for the original Star Wars trilogy: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Check them out, as well as some beautiful paintings by Slater, after the jump.

Here are Andrew DeGraff's Star Wars maps. A New Hope was revealed a few days ago, but Empire and Jedi are /Film exclusives. Click on each to see the incredible detail.

That's just a small sampling of the work DeGraff will have in the show. (He's also doing the Indiana Jones trilogy!!!!) Each will be an original painting as well as have limited edition giclees. Each piece will be 18.5 x 22 inches but no word on edition or price of the giclees just yet. You can look at some previous work for an idea though.

And here are some of the works by Bennett Slater. He combines pop culture iconography with the human body to give the viewer a whole different look not only at characters like Stay Puft Marshmallow man and Iron Man, but maybe themselves as well.

Andrew DeGraff & Bennett Slater's gallery show opens Saturday January 5th at 7 p.m. in Gallery 1988, 7020 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. It remains on display through January 26. Click here for gallery hours and contacts.