5x7" Mixed Media on Paper
"Promised Us Flying" by Chile Thomas
This is a vibrant, imaginative mixed-media work on aged paper, rendered in a bold illustrative style that blends folk art sensibility with retro-futurist fantasy.
Subject & Composition
A figure — wearing a golden yellow helmet, brown jacket, and blue jeans — reclines casually and confidently on a winged flying platform, as if lounging in an armchair at cruising altitude. The posture is the key storytelling element: this isn't tense or dramatic flight — it's leisurely, even mundane. The figure holds a phone and appears completely at ease.
The Craft & Flying Machine
The platform itself resembles a sleek, rounded vessel — somewhere between a magic carpet, a bumper car, and a mid-century concept vehicle. It carries what appear to be personal belongings, food, and small comforts scattered across its surface, suggesting a long, unhurried journey.
The Wings
The wings are the visual showstopper — enormous, multicolored, and feather-like, radiating colors of pink, teal, lavender, green, and gold with polka-dot accents. They feel both mechanical and organic simultaneously.
Mood & Meaning
The title "Promised Us Flying" carries a wry, knowing weight — a nod to the retro-futurist dream of personal flight that never quite arrived. Yet Chile depicts it as already here, already ordinary, already belonging to someone who looks like he always deserved it.
The aged paper ground and warm palette give it a timeless, almost mythological quality.