The X-Files (Where's Waldo?)

I loved this show... and I still miss it. The brilliant Chris Carter would have his characters Scully and Mulder go spelunking for monsters of all types week after week after week. Every Sunday a new beast would rise from the ether and slither it's way into the 21 century urban mythos. This series has definitely left a set of dirty fingerprints on my psyche and has influenced the imagery in my work.

So, way back in 2001 you can imagine how thrilled I was to have the official X-files magazine give me a call to illustrate a spread for them. The art director at the time, Kimberly Thornton, wanted me to come up with a digital painting that represented the 7th season of the series. After reviewing all the VCR tapes that they had fedexed me (which, by the way, was the most fun research I've ever had to do for a project to date - and yes, they were VCR tapes at that time, NOT DVD's)... I found that there were spiritual undertones within the season that I could take advantage of. Scully, was having a change of faith, or rather, beginning to 'believe'. The tone of her character was moving from an unapologetic scientist, who believed that there was an earthly logical explanation for every mystery out there, to a woman who was becoming comfortable with the strange energies surrounding her. This coupled with the fact that she was also pregnant, gave me the idea to paint her as a saint inside a church full of hidden objects. At the time, they were keeping the babies Father a secret, and so the Virgin Mary pose seemed to work well for the piece.

The magazine loved the idea, and decided to promote it as a game to the fans. They wanted me to create 13 clues for 13 episodes. My goal was to create 13 stragically placed objects within the illustration, where each "thing" would be a calling card to one particular episode. Just for fun... and just to test the fans, I decided to place an extra clue, just to see if it would be spotted.

All 14 clues were spotted on the first day that the mag was placed on the shelves... X-File fans are not easy to trick...

Do you think you can find all of the hidden objects? Click here...