THE SOUTHWESTERN BELLOWS:

Greetings Earthlings, and welcome to my weird fiction blog. The Southwestern Bellows is the name of the fantasy world where my paintings take place. It’s like Narnia or Middle Earth but set in the Old West. Also…there are aliens.

The purpose of this blog is one part story-telling and one part world-building. I create narrative-based paintings and work in series. Basically, I write a short story and illustrate the story. Each of the tales is separate, but they all take place within the same world: The Southwestern Bellows.

Presently I am compiling my first five stories (or painting series) into an art book. By diving deep into this fantasy world, I am sewing the seeds for future stories…and having fun. I have always wanted to visit a fantasy world.

The history of the Southwestern Bellows beings with the Oregon Trail. According to legend, in 1850, a caravan of 90 covered wagons from Indiana, led by business tycoon, Junior Baxton, headed west to follow the Gold Rush. Along the way, the caravan picked up 5 additional wagons in Missouri, six Nez Perce horse traders in Eastern Oregon, two wagons filled with Spanish settlers residing in Hood River, and in Portland they were joined by a family of acrobats, bringing the caravan, to a total of 101 wagons in all. The trip out west was difficult and taxing but typical of the times. …Until they reached Southern Oregon that is. While traveling through what is now the town of Gold Hill, the wagon train ventured through an eerie land where the gravity felt off, where there was no bird song or any sign of animal life. The pioneers felt a weird pressure in the atmosphere and reported seeing odd lights in the sky.