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!