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Originally
created for the groundbreaking "TALES OF SHATTERED EARTH" Internet
e-commerce project with Barclays Bank which in the early 90's
test-ran very early trials of how to conduct online payments for
downloadable intellectual properties, such as books and music.
"GREY
MASTER" illustrated the story titled "Transgenic Initiation" where what
seems on one level to be an alien abduction is a cloak for a far
deeper, soul-troubling experience. At the time of writing the Artist
was suffering from a very short-lived but excruciatingly painful health
problem which coincided coincidentally with research into various
experiences suffered by UFO abductees, especially those who had been
subjected to painful experiments.
"On
the edge of extreme pain the mind can penetrate areas of thinking,
consciousness, that it does not enter normally. There are "other zones
of experience", living even, beyond what we do from day to day. It is
pretty scary on the edge of oblivion. Pain, to the point where one
cannot function, can take you to "other places" and it got me to
pondering how much of the abductees recollections are to do with actual
transportation and tranportation on a mental plane? I found, even with
my vivid imagination, that the "edge of extreme pain" was like taking a
transcendental trip, a tantric realisation of all that is, and,
enlightening though it was, I'd very much prefer not to go there again.
In the story, I expressed it as a young child having its doll taken
away, by, who knows, an adult maybe, or another child, or even it may
have been broken by the child itself. In any event, a schism induced by
sudden shock, a "pain", causes a trauma that causes a de-bonding with
the world, because the child realises, at too early an age, that a doll
is just a doll, whereas feelings, emotions, are for life, or, depending
on your belief structure, forever . . . . . . . . . .
"The
experience, and the writings, changed my approach to art because I
realised "a picture is just a picture" in terms of the paint
used, a technical expertise, and without the soul, the lifeforce, the
personality, the picture would be blank of meaning and power even if it
had paint all over the surface.

"Up
until this experience, I have to say, I'd never really thought about,
let alone understood, my own creativity at any time, it was something
that "I'd always done" without question, and later in life, success as
an illustrator meant I was always very, very busy, so I never had time
to stop and consider the issue. One can be successful on one level yet
completely unaware on another, it seems . . . . . These days, since
then, I always ponder exactly why I am painting any particular picture,
even though paradoxically I also prefer not to delve too deeply into
it, afraid, perhaps, of the answer . . . . ?
"I
often wonder if those who have had near-death experiences visited the
same places I did, or similar nearby zones, or had completely different
experiences?
"The
experience left me with the view that "most things are not important
and some things are not important at all" though this is not a negative
expression, more a Tantric view, sort of, kind of, maybe, perhaps, if
you see what I mean . . . . . . . . .
One
of 12 short Dark Science Fiction stories that revolve around themes of
urban life "from a time not so far away" alienation, and psychological
displacement are central themes, where the local shopping mall and a
pram-pushing young mom are as dangerous as alien visitors from,
wherever . . . . .
The
stories eventually were repackaged as a collector's printed luxury book here
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