THE SOUTHWESTERN BELLOWS WORLD COMPENDIUM PART 1: Introduction

Greetings Earthlings, here is the first post in a series of posts dedicated to world-building the imaginary land where all of my paintings take place. All of the content about my imaginary world is either scribbled in my sketchbooks or typed out in scattered computer files, so this series of blog posts is an attempt to formalize the material. Eventually, I plan to compile all the posts into a single Wiki page on my website called “Stories”. In addition to the Southwestern Bellows World Compendium, it will also include the narratives from my past series of paintings and juicy details about recurring characters and….aliens. 

Introduction:

An oil painting showing pioneer and western people with a scifi style alien in the background. Also there are lots of cactus and mountians in the painting.

Typical citizens of the Southwestern Bellows

All of my paintings are fictional stories set in a magickal land called the Southwestern Bellows. The Southwestern Bellows is a human breakaway civilization existing on a separate planet, terraformed like the Earth to support human life. In the mid-1850s pioneers traveling West to follow the gold rush were abducted and transported to this new planet by an enigmatic race of aliens called the Zeta Reticulans to further the goals of their creepy human-extraterrestrial hybridization program. Note: the Zeta Reticulans are also known to harvest dreams, store human nightmares inside crystals, and other fun stuff like that….but more on them later.

Over the years, generations of people placed on this new planet established communities, towns, and even cities. Although the descendants of the original abductees occasionally encounter the Zeta Reticulans, the citizens of the Southwestern Bellows--citizens of a human breakaway civilization tapped in a bizarre likeness of the Old American West--carry on, business as usual. Most people live their entire lives without ever experiencing one of the gray-skinned entities. For the most part, these unknowable beings remain a spooky mystery. 

A map of an imaginary world, called the Southwestern Bellows. The map is drawn in graphite with a watercolor wash.

Here is the rough map from my sketchbook. I am planning on re-drawing this one day. Fun!

The geography of the Southwestern Bellows is mostly undiscovered. No one is certain what lies beyond the map, but there is a map…made out of gold and it was gifted to one of the first human inhabitants by an entirely different race of extraterrestrial….but more on that later…. The mapped region of the Southwestern Bellows is roughly the size of a European country and its citizens have never traveled beyond its borders. 

Despite being a country without neighbors, the Southwestern Bellows has its fair share of dangers from within and without; reptilian monsters, hybrids, bandits, demons, cultists, and creatures so terrifying they shall not be named. 

The Southwestern Bellows is a dangerous place, but it is also a magical place. Some would suggest that magick is stronger in the Southwestern Bellows than it is on Earth. Many children display powerful psychic gifts early on, and the land is home to many hereditary witch families, natural-born wizards, and all manner of magickal creatures, from fairies and gnomes to Sasquatch and talking turtles.

Next up: A History of the Southwestern Bellows in three parts. (I sure do love history….especially when it is imaginary!)

UFO/ALIEN BOOKS

Greetings Earthlings, recently someone on Instagram asked me for my top three UFOlogy/Alien-lore book recommendations. The question really made me think so I decided to answer the question in this quick blog. Also, a quick disclaimer: I am not a UFO/Alien expert, just an artist with an interest in the paranormal. My work is fiction and definitely inspired by this stuff, but I remain open-minded on the subject. I don’t have the answers and I doubt I ever will, nor do I necessarily take all of the below materials at face value. Nevertheless, there is something going on in the skies and I love thinking about and exploring these spooky mysteries. 

1. “Communion: A True Story” by Whitley Strieber

This book was one of the first that I ever read on the subject and it tells the first-hand account of Strieber’s own abductions and extraterrestrial visitations. It is oddly surreal, spiritual, and chilling. Strieber has written tons of books on the subject and his fiction work is great too.

I was very inspired by this book

2. “The Threat” by David M. Jacobs

The Threat: Revealing the Secret Alien Agenda

And speaking of chilling, this book expands on the abduction phenomenon and the hypnosis work David M. Jacobs has done throughout the years with abductees. Not a good book to read alone at night before bed, because this is some pretty scary stuff. Jacobs explores the phenomena through the shared experiences of people he has worked with over the years and has put together a fairly sinister model of the phenomenon. He specifically discusses the grays, their capabilities, and their hybridization program. 

      

3. “American Cosmic: UFO’s, Religion, Technology” by D.W. Pasulka

This book is very different than the other two! Amazon sums it up better than I can: “Over the course of a six-year ethnographic study, D.W. Pasulka interviewed successful and influential scientists, professionals, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, thereby disproving the common misconception that only fringe members of society believe in UFOs.” 

I won’t spoil it, but I really liked this book because one of the people that she interviewed was a technology entrepreneur who appeared to have been receiving downloads from extraterrestrials. I also liked it because it was kind of different. 

BONUS:

4. “Chariot of the Gods?” by Erich Von Daniken

This book is a little outdated now…it came out in 1974…but it is basically the TV show Ancient Aliens. This is where it all started and Erich Von Daniken is the O.G. of UFOlogy. If you are really into the subject these ideas might not be all that new, but the book is still worth a read. 

5. “The Anunnaki Connection: Sumerian Gods, Alien DNA, and the Fate of Humanity (From Eden to Armageddon)” by Heather Lynn

Whoa, what a long title! I read this book a few years ago after hearing the author speak on a podcast and remember her book being very entertaining. In UFOlogy there is an Ancient Alien thread about the Sumerian Gods being powerful aliens who created humans to be their slaves, and who still rule us from the shadows. No matter what you actually believe, I felt that the arguments in this book were compelling and fun to ponder.   

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but a few books I either read recently or just really liked. Gosh, writing this list has rekindled my interest in reading the work of these researchers. I have never read anything by the famous paranormal researcher and UFOlogist Jaque Vallee, but I think I’m going to buy one of his books this week. 

Again, I don’t have any answers, but I find it all very inspirational for my paintings. If you have any suggested UFOlogoy books for me, put them in the comments below!   

Have a cool day, friends! 

NEW STUFF: “On the Trail”

Greetings Earthlings, for the last few years I have been making paintings in series; 9 pieces that tell a specific story or fairy tale, set in my imaginary world, The Southwestern Bellows. I am a huge planner! When painting one series, I always plan my next series in my sketchbooks, creating stories, characters, and storyboards. 

Presently I am painting for “The Mentorship Program” a series about a cookie salesman and the success-obsessed Pleiadians, and while that has been going on I have been developing the concept for my next nine pieces. That series will be called… “On the Trail”. 

SUMMARY:

In 1850 a wagon train of pioneers set out from Fort Wayne, Indiana to California hoping to discover gold. One night in Southern Oregon, a few of the pioneers are put into a trance by mysterious robed figures, where they are spirited away to another world…  When they awake, they find themselves standing before what can only be a portal. A portal that then closes. 

This is a quick sketch for the first of the nine paintings in the series. This one shows a wagon and our characters being lead away to a new world.

While the stranded pioneers are searching for clues as to what happened to them, one of the party members, a young girl named Myrl Bel, is confronted by a hideous Mantid creature in the nearby woods. She is given information about their new world and a map caved onto a golden sheet of paper. According to the Mantid, the map leads to a place of safety for the pioneers. And, the rest of the story is about the characters overcoming this new land’s many obstacles and challenges as they make their way toward the final location on the map.     



CHARACTERS:

Lailoken Bel: A Scottish Mystic and diviner of water, gold, and other earth-bound treasures. Lailoken was the son of a human woman who was impregnated by a demon. He is centuries old, but long ago he magickally erased his own memories to escape the horrors of his past evil deeds. Now he is facing his most brutal challenge of all: Raising a teenage daughter as a single father.   









Myrl Bel: Myrl is Lailoken’s 16-year-old adopted daughter. She has no magickal abilities of her own but she does have a positive mental attitude, a cool belt knife, and a dog who is scared of everything.











Junior Baxton: A 44-year-old wealthy businessman and natural leader with blue-collar roots. He opened a lemonade stand when he was four and now owns a lemon grove and several other profitable enterprises. All setbacks are opportunities! Junior was outfitted with a glass eye after losing one of his eyes in a carpentry accident. Later he opened a store selling glass eyes, and now he is the biggest retailer of glass eyes in ten states.     



Gertrude Nesbit: A very religious seamstress and flag maker. Gertrude is ever quick to point out other people's faults and sinful behavior. She constantly tells improbable stories about a male admirer that she has in St. Louis. Her stories about this mystery man are awkwardly lusty and often graphic. Gertrude is very strong and has a handshake like a bear trap. 









J.J. Nesbit: Gertrude’s 25-year-old son and a day laborer by trade. J.J. has seen some shit. When he was a small boy he saw something terrible. He never spoke about it and has never been the same since. When he was a teenager he saw some shit too. Then, as an adult, he saw some real shit. He has never spoken about any of these haunting sights, but they were nuts and they plague his waking moment. 









Zx’Dahni-W’co’cll (Danny for short) Danny is a Mantid from one of the Zeta Reticulan’s many Dwarf Moons and has existed in his current form for 1000-star-cycles. He acts as a spiritual adviser, and moral authority for the Zeta Reticulan Grays and as an ambassador of goodwill for the humans who were brought to this new planet against their will by the Grays as subjects of their long-running occult science program.   





I am already starting to work on the story board for this series. I am so excited to show you all what I come up with!

THE TIME I SAW A UFO

Greetings Earthlings! As I write this blog, it is July 2nd, which is World UFO Day! To celebrate, I am going to share my UFO sighting:

The UFO that I saw looked a tiny bit like the fireball that I painting in this piece, “Prayers to the Magi“ but without the long tail.

My sighting happened back in 2009 in Springfield, Oregon. It was summertime and the occurrence happened right at dusk. My now ex-wife and I were walking down Centennial Boulevard from our house to the corner store when we saw the object directly to our right, flying above the houses. I say “object” because it didn’t look like a craft or a saucer. It was roughly the size of one of those old Volkswagon Beatles; egg-shaped and glowing weirdly as if radiating some sort of energy. It was orange like fire, but again, it appeared to be composed of energy rather than flames. 

The object was extremely low in the sky. It was flying--maybe cruising is the better word--only ten feet above the neighborhood utility poles. It flew West to East at a casual 15-20 MPH and disappeared behind the trees. The experience only lasted a few seconds, but I will never forget it. My ex saw it too, and at the time we were so excited, but we were also left with the feeling of wanting more. It was kind of a letdown, but I suppose this is how these things go. They were unscripted occurrences and I am sure the retelling of the story isn’t all that exciting. 

You had to be there I guess...

The UFO that I saw looked a lot like one of these objects.

Later we bought a telescope and spent the rest of the summer nights in the backyard hoping to see another UFO but sadly never did. I would love to have another experience. 

On a final note, I will mention that coincidentally 2009 is the year that I first started painting. Are the two events related? I don’t necessarily think so, but you never know…       

Happy World UFO DAY!!



INSPIRATION

“Time Life: Mysteries of the Unknown“ I loved these books as a kid. And as an adult!

The most common question that I get asked regarding my art is, first: “Have you had an encounter with, or been abducted by aliens?” The second most common question is: “Where do you get your inspiration?” This post is about the inspiration question, but I promise I will circle back to the aliens question later. 

The short answer to the inspiration question is that I am inspired by literally everything! I am a very curious person, and I am constantly fascinated and awestruck by the world around me. If I have to get specific, I could come up with a few different categories of things that inspire my paintings.

  • Stories

    • The Paranormal/UFOlogy/ESP/etc…

    • Fantasy/Horror Fiction 

    • Mythology

    • Occult Esotercisim and Magick

    • Folklore

    • Local History (True Stories)

  • Art

    • Medieval and Dutch Master Painting

    • Golden Age of Illustration Painters

    • Also Edward Gorey

  • Experiences:

    • Places I have visited

    • Places I have lived

    • Random things I am interested in or experience in real life. Often these things or situations allow me to poke a little fun at myself.

At the core, I am most inspired by STORIES!! Like a fantasy author, my paintings take place in an imaginary world that I call, The Southwestern Bellows. The narratives are about things that capture my imagination, like UFOlogy, folklore, and local history. I was raised Catholic (I am no longer practicing) and grew up with a magical worldview which piqued my interest in all things paranormal. To this day, I still believe in magic. Also, I grew up in Oregon in the 80/90’s when shows like Sightings and X-files and Unsolved Mysteries were popular. My Dad and his boyfriend had the entire collection of “Time Life; Mysteries of the Unknown”, and I couldn’t get enough of those. Bloody vampires, summoned demons, alien abduction, evil sorcery, and grimoires written on human skin… These were the things that excited me as a kid and still do today!

The Oregon Trail video game! Very inspiring!

Another Oregon fascination was the video game, “The Oregon Trail” which I first played on a floppy disc at my elementary school. From that time forward, I have been fascinated by pioneers and pioneer history. I love history museums.  

As for actually being inspired by art, most of my art inspiration comes from the past. I love old master painting techniques and I aim to emulate some of them in my work. Bosch, Bruegel, and Durrer are my favorites. I especially resonate with medieval paintings featuring angels or devils or both. (To me, angels and devils are similar to…aliens.) When even I visit a new city, a visit to their art museum is always at the top of my list. 

Another area of inspiration is things that I see in real life. I paint a lot of desert scenes, and although I would never want to live in the desert, I have been to the Southwest many times to visit family; Phoenix and Palm Springs. I find the landscape beautiful in a hot harsh kind of way, and fitting for tales of extraterrestrials. I lived in Eugene, Oregon for fifteen years. A lot of the characters I make up are inspired by my days in Eugene as a former stoner pizza-dude, and rock-and-roll band guy. Back in the day, I used to love people-watching in Eugene. So many wacky, hippie, punk, and studious people. 

Inspiration is a funny thing. Everyone is different. Some people/artists are inspired by bug collecting, anime, or building robots. Some people love bowling and math. Maybe I am crazy. I am not sure why everybody isn’t into 16th-century paintings, ceremonial magick, the Oregon Trail, and the Betty and Barney Hill Incident. That’s just what I am into, and that is what inspires my art.           

Fort Wayne, Indiana: It’s Not That Bad!

Greetings Earthlings, this post is a continuation of my last blog post, entitled, “Why I left Portland”. So, to sum up, the last post, the main reason why my girlfriend, Erica, and I relocated is that we wanted to buy a house and Portland was too expensive. I still love my hometown, but it’s pricey and right now it sadly has a few problems.

The Pandemic really influenced our decision in that it made us question what was important to us. We are both artists and spend about 90 percent of our time at home working, so home ownership was a priority. Plus, we have both been sober for over five years and that really changes a lot of things. So, we were willing to forego living in a hip place with fun bars for a less-cool city where we could have a very cool and affordable house.

Why Fort Wayne?

Believe it or not, I had never even heard of Fort Wayne until I started the research. Yes, the housing prices are very affordable--one of the most affordable markets in the country--and it checked off a few other boxes like walkability, population size, traffic, crime, weather, climate, and distance to other cities. We also wanted to move to a city that wasn’t amazing now but had the potential to be amazing in the near future. Fort Wayne is growing and upon visiting, we could see possibilities. 

Other cities we almost moved to:

This is the History Museum. There are quite a few buildings like this in downtown.

  • Milwaukee 

  • St. Louis 

  • Spokane 

  • Des Moines 

  • Pittsburgh

  • Charleston or Wheeling West Virginia

So, after visiting the Fort we decided this place seemed like a realistic option for us. We ended up buying an old folk victorian house that is across the street from a quaint park with a lake. We purchased the home sight unseen and our cross-country road trip was epic. We love the house and named her Moonbeam! 

Lakeside park, which is across the street from out house. So pretty! People were getting married there every day last summer.

Things I dislike about the Fort:

  • Strip malls. 

  • Food deserts. We can’t walk to the grocery store like we used to in Portland. 

  • Also, public transportation sucks here. 

  • In general, the restaurants are not very vegan-friendly.

  • It’s not outwardly the hippest place in the world, but there are definitely cool people and things here. You might just have to look a little harder to find them.

  • The bugs in August were insane. Literal clouds blood-drinking mosquitoes. I saw one that was seven inches long. 

Things I like about the Fort:

  • We were able to buy an awesome house here and our place is within walking distance of downtown. 

  • The downtown is actually pretty cool. There have been recent updates, and new murals, and the city has a lot of future plans. Definitely growing!  

  • Lots of great parks, river trails, and access to nature spots.

  • Some fun Victorian architecture.

  • Fort Wayne is within driving distance of 10 major cities and is not all that far from the East Coast. 

  • I actually enjoy the weather. The summer was milder than Portland (except for the occasional lightning death storm) and I loved the winter snow. The streets are plowed regularly too, which never happens in Portland and it doesn’t rain quite as much.

  • A surprising amount of good coffee shops.

  • Nice Library too.

  • It doesn’t feel like it suffers from the mental health/drug problems that plague a lot of the West Coast. Didn’t expect it to be any different here, but that’s a nice bonus. 

  • Fort Wayne is very chill and the slow pace feeds my creativity.

Overall, I do miss Portland, but mainly family and friends. I am really liking it here though and I think Erica and I made the right decision. 

Fort Wayne, Indiana: It’s not that bad! :)

Also, have you relocated recently? Where to? How are you liking it? Let me know in the comment

Why I left Portland

Greetings Earthlings! As many of you know, I recently relocated from Portland, Oregon to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a lot of folks have asked, 

The Bagdad on Hawthorne! Sooo good!!

“Why would you leave Portland? It’s such a cool and artsy place.” 

Well, after reading a recent article in the Willamette Week entitled: 

“They Left: Portland Is Losing Some of Its Biggest Fans,” I decided just for fun, to write my own response.

I moved because:

  •  I wanted to buy a house! Portland--and everywhere else in the Pacific Northwest, was just too expensive for this artist of humble means. 

  • My favorite thrift store, “Great Good Stuff” burnt down and so did that awesome Lebanese restaurant next door.

Things I will miss:

Powell’s on Hawthorne was the best! I loved drawing at the coffee shop there; The Fresh Pot.

  • Restaurants that serve vegan food, and especially the cookies and stuff at Sweet Pea Bakery

  • Local art supply stores like Columbia Art and Drafting 

  • Powell’s on Hawthorne…. Actually, all of Hawthorne because it’s my favorite street in the world.

  • The culture, man

  • Also that cute coffee shop in Lad’s Addition. They also have great vegan cookies too btw.

  • Timet! Such great public transit, and so walkable (I don’t drive a car)

  • All the crows and rain

  • My family and friends, duh!!!! 

Things I will not miss:

Ugh

  • Having your stuff (anything: van, bike, backpack, hacky sack) stolen.

  • Methheads with machetes and Junkies with open wounds at Fred Meyer

  • All the shootings!

  • Stepping in human shit

  • EXTREME politics (and I am sure every person in Portland now hates me for even suggesting that I dislike the politics because you are either with us or against us because it’s fucking EXTREME bro!!) 

  • Homeless camps in parks, underpasses, and most walkable parts of the city…of course it’s sad, but with the combination of drugs and mental health...

  • Murdery China Town and almost all of downtown in general, which sucks because it felt so cool as a kid.

Portlandia…the statue, not the show.

I still love Portland though, and I plan on visiting a lot. And once again: If the housing prices were more reasonable, we would have never moved, even with the problems. Thanks for coming by!! 

In my next post, I will talk about why we chose Fort Wayne, and how the move has panned out for us. Life after Portland, haha.

My Process Part 1

Rough thumbnail. Literally the size of my thumbnail.

WARNING: Nerdy Artist Post. I love hearing about how other artists create their work, so for fun, I thought I would share my own process.

1. ROUGH THUMBNAIL: After staring at tarot cards and making contact with ETs while in an art trance, I am gifted with an initial idea that I draw super small and quickly. My rough thumbnail sketches are about the size of a postage stamp.

2. WOKING THUMBNAIL: I gather some reference material and draw what I call my, "working thumbnail". This is usually a bit smaller than a postcard. If I am happy with the idea at this point, then I will consider making the idea into a painting.

Working thumbnail

3. I DRAW EVERYTHING ONTO A PANEL: I don't use any fancy transfer method, I just re-draw everything and spend a ton of time erasing and re-drawing until things look okay.

4. UNDERPAINTING: After covering the drawing with three coats of matte medium to seal the board, I paint the first layer in titanium white and raw umber, creating a monochromatic painting. I do this to establish my values and because I can correct my drawing much more quickly without having to push around colors.

5. COLOR LAYER: After the underpainting is complete, the real painting begins. At this stage, I begin adding small details and trying to make things look neat. And after many hours of podcasts and audiobooks, the painting is done! Yay!

6. THE END: Finally, I varnish the piece, photograph it, and frame it. Sometimes I make prints too!

7. GO BACK TO STEP 1.

The sketch on the panel before any actual painting begins

“Paranormal Investigator“ 18X20 Oil On Panel 2021 (Final)