Tim Hildebrandt, RIP

Even as we celebrate a unique musical artist's birthday today, we bid farewell to a unique artist of the visual realm - Tim Hildebrandt, who, along with his twin brother Greg, was responsible for some of the most breathtaking and astounding fantasy and science fiction artwork of our time. While their most well-known composition was undoubtedly the original Star Wars poster, I personally feel that it was in their renderings of J.R.R. Tolkien characters and scenes that their talent reached its pinnacle. And thus, no more fitting words can be used to mark Tim's passing than that profound sentiment with which Aragorn King Elessar breathed his last:

"In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold, we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory. Farewell!"