This monumental sculpture was born from a simple offer to create a portrait bust of visionary author Ray Bradbury. Inspired by his short story Pieta Summer, The Illustrated Man / Fr. Electrico reimagines a pivotal childhood memory of the author—his father carrying him home after a long day at the circus—by merging it with Bradbury’s mythic character from the book The Illustrated Man. The resulting composition is both intimate and imposing: a tribute to paternal love and the lifelong storytelling that defined Bradbury’s legacy.

In the original story,  the Illustrated Man is covered in tattoos that come to life to tell their stories. In bronze, Slatoff reinterprets these tattoos as three-dimensional “illuminations” in the spirit of medieval manuscripts—drawing on imagery not only from Bradbury’s published works but also from deeply personal conversations shared between the writer and the artist. The sculpture captures the transformative power of narrative across forms, serving as a compelling example of how stories can be told in bronze as vividly as they are on the page.