That picture below? Hah! Nooooo. No way. That’s not mine. I can’t artify like that. How awesome would that be? No, that’s by Phil Hale. I first saw his paintings of this robot-smashing dude years ago, and they’ve been lurking in my brain since then.  Something about his paintings grabbed my interest and never let go. Motion. Intensity. Physical and emotional rawness. Frayed nerve endings. It’s a still image, but the sense of force comes through.

 

The influence of Phil Hale’s paintings comes through in the later chapters of Beneath White Clouds. The essential, indomitable, ugly, powerful ape-ness of man. I didn’t realize the connection until a read-through of BWC coincided with a re-examination of an old art book I have containing some of his work. But it’s there in the story, and in pale imitation in some of the art I’m cooking up.

So, as I warm up to resume the funding campaign for Beneath White Clouds, I thought it would be good of me to share with you a bit of what is occupying my mind, some of inspiration that fueled Beneath White Clouds. There is a lot of funny in the story, but a lot of other stuff too, including, I hope, a bit of the essential power mankind has that transcends any form of oppression. It ain’t pretty, but it’s effective.