There is a well somewhere in the hills, but it cannot be used to get water.
> what is in the bucket?🐚
The first four pictures from the Sequence came together between February and April of 2020, and then I didn't do much art for a year. Funnily enough, I didn't really perceive a gap, and prior to noticing the timestamp on this picture I was pretty sure I did this one immediately after Transubstation.
At this point, I thought Interregnum was going to come fairly quickly after Elsewhich, though I hadn't figured out how the linkage between the two would work. As you know, Elsewhich connects to Valley of Guf, which will connect to the yet-unseen Radiant via an interstitial painting I am still planning. So, I had sort of imagined I would do a gradual perspective shift through the ribs of Elsewhich's starship, fly past some strange hills, and shift angle again to zoom down this well (and Interregnum would be beyond the monster's mouth instead of the industrial hell in Digestion.)
But that didn't happen! The idea of the submarine-in-a-bucket struck before I could do that other thing, and Interregnum spent a couple years without a prior frame. This is one of the most interesting things about the Sequence from the perspective of an artist: the plan changes constantly, but sometimes I can see what I was originally planning to do.
I wish I could see what that would have been! And that's a pretty strange idea: "what would this series of paintings have been like if they were all done by the person I was when I started? And what would my art be like if it did not change me while I make it?"
It is difficult at times not to feel a tremendous kinship with that past self. He had different problems, mostly, but he never got to finish everything he planned before he turned into somebody else. Just like the current version of me, except I still think I'll pull it off.
At this point, I thought Interregnum was going to come fairly quickly after Elsewhich, though I hadn't figured out how the linkage between the two would work. As you know, Elsewhich connects to Valley of Guf, which will connect to the yet-unseen Radiant via an interstitial painting I am still planning. So, I had sort of imagined I would do a gradual perspective shift through the ribs of Elsewhich's starship, fly past some strange hills, and shift angle again to zoom down this well (and Interregnum would be beyond the monster's mouth instead of the industrial hell in Digestion.)
But that didn't happen! The idea of the submarine-in-a-bucket struck before I could do that other thing, and Interregnum spent a couple years without a prior frame. This is one of the most interesting things about the Sequence from the perspective of an artist: the plan changes constantly, but sometimes I can see what I was originally planning to do.
I wish I could see what that would have been! And that's a pretty strange idea: "what would this series of paintings have been like if they were all done by the person I was when I started? And what would my art be like if it did not change me while I make it?"
It is difficult at times not to feel a tremendous kinship with that past self. He had different problems, mostly, but he never got to finish everything he planned before he turned into somebody else. Just like the current version of me, except I still think I'll pull it off.
The Hylozoist is a long-form digital project I began in February 2020. Each painting tells a story, and each painting tells another story when viewed in context. Also, each painting can be followed to the next painting in the series if you follow the most interesting thing in the scene.
To see more paintings from the project, click here.
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