The painting illustrates the story’s climax: the sudden arrival of the Zeta Reticulan Death Priests. They have come to settle the score with the resurrected extraterrestrial—now referred to as the “Cactus Person”—who, despite his origins, has become a friend to Pinkney and his neighbors.

On the anniversary of his two-hundred and forty-seventh hatching-day, Repgore Fanglock was caught off guard--ambushed by his allies. He was then gifted a beautiful new war axe and a frosted meat cake made from the corpses his slain enemies. What followed was an uncommon but sweet moment of happiness.

The Cactus Person was weirdly protective of Pinkney. When an aggressive student loan officer tried to extract a high-interest payment from Pinkney--for a course he had taken thirty-five years prior, let it be known!--the Cactus Person intervened. With an eerie whistling sound, a beam of light shot forth from the creature’s hand and enveloped the loan officer’s head in a frightening doom rainbow…

But over the next few days the creature followed Pinkney everywhere, asking questions, delivering unwelcome telepathic downloads, and just lurking. The creature also ate metal, which was annoying because it devoured Pinkney’s cast-iron skillet, his lucky horseshoe, and most of his money.

This series tells the story of Pinkney Dill (see my painting “The Resurrection Pod”), a master gardener leading a tidy and serene life, who one day discovers an extraordinary saguaro in his front yard….

…When the trance wore off, and he saw his desert sanctuary ruined, Pinkney was devastated. His neighbors promised to help him re-landscape, and the alien then gave everyone three gold bars, which helped ease Pinkney’s mood. It ate the remaining nineteen.

Shortly after it emerges from the extraordinary saguaro, the newly resurrected extraterrestrial telepathically shares its life story with Pinkney. This scene shows how the alien was betrayed by those of its own arcane order of powerful Zeta Reticulan Death Priests and was subsequently executed by those it once led.

“The Resurrection Pod” 18x24 Oil on Panel 2025 “The Cactus Garden Series” 1/9

*Greetings Earthlings, here is the first painting in a new series that I am calling the “Cactus Garden”.

🌵 Here is an excerpt from the story: 

On Midsomer’s day, Master Gardner, Pinkney Dill, discovered the strangest cactus growing in his garden. Where had it come from? The strange cactus stood twenty tall and resembled a handsome many-armed saguaro, except there was clearly something large and gross wriggling inside. Pinkney grimaced and shook his head. The saguaro’s flowers gave off a vaguely metallic stink, and it had an odd vertical seam down the middle. The oddest thing about the towering writhing saurago was that it had not been there the day before. It must have sprouted up overnight. 

This painting is from my Summoner and Scribe series, which tells the story of Benjamin Tod Mortimer, a melancholy young lad who gives up on his dream of being an author of children’s tragedies to take a good-paying but unsatisfy job as a scribe for a Master Occultist…who specializes in the summoning of demons.

✨🌵When the Ancient Doom Lord, William-of-the-Wisp, was offered an opportunity to increase his frightening powers, he could hardly resist.

Benj had been commissioned to compose a grimoire of darkest necromancy, but instead, he decided to write a sad story. When the “grimore” was read aloud in a cemetery during a magickal operation, all of those in attendance were driven to tears by Benj’s woebegone tale--a tale about a heart surgeon for broken hearts.  Here we see the occultist releasing the young scribe to pursue a career in creative writing.      

Here we see Benj lamenting in a dungeon. But not all is lost! Through his encounters with the Occultist and his flock of diabolical creatures, the young scribe has learned a bit of magick himself….

In this painting, we see Master Occultist Erie Oldfather selling Benj’s most recently penned grimoire to Anya the Onion Witch and her associates: Matilda, the tortured ghost of a childhood friend, and the cannibal, Bloodmouth Scarman. Benj desperately wants to quit his new job, but he is in too deep.

Following his sister’s extraterrestrial abduction and his breakup with the desert sorceress, Orren Mawson found himself alone and lonely. He spent most of his days deep in caves questing for crystals and valuable minerals that he would later trade for horse food, friendship bracelets, and fruit pies. Unfortunately, Orren was friendless. Then one day, amongst the stalactites and bats in the fathomless below, deep within his discontent, Orren met someone luring in the darkness. It was a fellow miner.