This was one of the recent designs for John Space Center’s I Camped In Space annual sleep-over event for kids.

I have had the pleasure of designing for this event several times but this was my favorite of the designs I have done for them.

This website is not allowing me to upload (or embed with html) the image for some reason. So as a testament to my problem solving skills, I hosted the image proof on my website and hyperlinked it here.

Copy and past the link in your browser:

https://www.twine.net/signin

This series started in the subconscious lucid dream realm.
I was an artist looking for direction. I went to sleep one night and in a dream I saw a finished artwork leaning against the wall in my Art Director, Mitch Different’s home. He kept trying to pull me away, but I resisted. I remember thinking “I want to remember this when I wake up.”

After staring at the 1st completed drawing in a lucid dream, I felt compelled to (re)create it in my waking life to share the vision with the rest of the world. This required filling in the gaps of my memory. So what do I put inside this enormous asian palanquin carriage I saw?

A grub worm is the larva stage (2 of 4) in the life cycle of a beetle. J.B.S. Haldane remarked, “If He exists, the creator has an inordinate fondness for beetles.” noting that there are 300,000 species of beetles and only 10,000 species of mammals. What if God is a Beetle? There’s a better chance of that, statistically, than any mammal such as us. We humans have always been so bold to assume the universe revolved around us. Now, what if each era of human civilization was a stage in the metamorphosis of this God Beetle?

Each stage of metamorphosis coincides with another paradigm shift into a new empire.
As the artwork and subsequent pieces evolve so does the concept and story. Now there is a novel in the works that takes the audience through these realms. Iconic characters have developed and conspiracies unravel.

The stages were developed as follows; Chinese Lord Worm, Egyptian King Pupa, Medieval God Beetle, and ending with the beginning, the Aztec Emperor Egg. The life cycle starts over, and so does civilization. These “resets” are often periods of lost knowledge but can also be an awakening to the next level. We seem to be close to a shift.

A similar progression has occurred in our history. Some of today’s holy books are too close for comfort replicas of Egyptian stories just with different names, which were similar to their ancestors, the Sumerians’ myths. Could these all be reincarnations of the same God? Perhaps this alternate timeline is more similar that it seemed.

Years into the Atlas Metamorphosis project,
I can see why dreaming changed the course of my entire life. It gave direction to this once lost soul and thus a vision to finally be the artist I knew I was capable of being. It caused me to conceptualize a unique vision that was beyond my waking imagination. All while challenging my drafting skills, such as the use of perspective drawing, intricate detailing, and concept art. It all stemmed from a mere moment in a subconscious state. I was able to overcome my life’s greatest mystery there and I believe everyone else can too, if we merely tap into this infinite potential that is the human mind.