The iconic singer David Bowie passed away yesterday after losing his battle with cancer at just 69. The singer and actor broke boundaries during the last 40 years, constantly evolving and bringing us along for the gleeful ride. He brought a beautiful eccentricity to everything he touched, and his work inspired many of us to let our freak flags fly and not give a damn what anyone said about it.
As the media deals with the collective grief over the loss of a truly brilliant shining star, there is an outpouring of think pieces, tributes, and roundups of quintessential Bowie. These all help the world — especially those of our generation who grew up both terrified and in awe of his Labyrinth Goblin King, but also those too young to know the majority of his work — pay tribute to the artist and the man. One such creative homage is this GIF, which does a great job at displaying his cultural impact in a visual snippet.
The GIF was created by illustrator Helen Green, who has a particular affinity for the late artist. It displays Bowie sporting 29 different, career-spanning hairstyles — "from the pre-Bowie 1964 to 2014, with the release of 'Sue (Or In a Series of Crime),'" Green said in an interview. The pencil drawings — which she colored digitally and animated in Photoshop — took 35 hours total to create. Now, that's love.
"For many of the drawings, I used a reference from a different year but facing the correct way. For example, the reference for 'Ashes to Ashes' Bowie was his 1976 mug shot, and a sideways-facing 'Heroes' Bowie for the drawing of Davie Jones," she said. "It was quite a triumph to see all 29 drawings in motion for the first time!”
And while the piece may be titled "Time May Change Me," no number of passing days can take away from the legacy Bowie leaves behind. He and his magic will truly be missed. Click here to view all 29 drawings of our beloved starman, one by one. As our fearless EIC Christene Barberich said in response to the news of his passing: "What he represented and advocated for set millions of people free to dance to the beat of their own drum. What an extraordinary contribution this person made to not just music and art but humanity."
We've reached out to Green for comment, and will update this post when we hear back.