Beautiful Grim

Many of you who know my work may also know the work of Mike "Daarken" Lim. I always laugh at his nom de pinceau, but he's a good illustrator who's been all around the industry now for awhile, kicking butt and taking names. I only just had the opportunity to meet him, briefly, a few months back even though we both lived in the San Francisco Bay Area at the same time for awhile.

Well, Mike reached out to many of his fellow illustrators a couple months back in an effort to put together both an art event, as well as some support for the terrible ordeal his wife and he have gone through recently in dealing with her breast cancer, with remaining proceeds to be donated to a breast cancer charity to be determined. The result was a project called "Beautiful Grim," the wide-open theme upon which illustrators from across the broader industry were to create small works which would result hopefully in a live as well as online auction, and with the intention of also turning the collected works into a book, as well. People jumped all over it, whether or not they paid much attention to the theme. More info can be found here.

My own angle with it was simply that I've now had breast cancer strike on both sides of my household--my mother is a breast cancer survivor of 25+ years (go, mom!), and it very recently struck on my wife's side, too. I've known so many folks who've had breast cancer go off like a bomb in their lives.One thing that always seems so vicious about breast cancer is how the operations can mangle a woman's outer appearance. The range of operations has changed and improved over time, but the dreaded bilateral mastectomy is still common, and can be an assault on a woman's identity.

And yet, hopefully through their ordeal many women will come to learn about the deeper beauty that is revealed in those who fight this disease--whether they make it or succumb. The strength, the fight, the courage that pours out even in the most frightened of patients is an inspiration.

Most of the art that rolled in ran all over the place with the theme, as was expected. I didn't think many artists would address the underlying issue we were all creating art for, but I knew mine would have to. So I produced a small, 6x8" painting which I've titled, simply, "An Inner Strength." For this one, I actually started first in Acrylic.

It was all pretty spontaneous at this point.

Once I got that far in, I switched to oils and finished it off. It was a nice change of pace to do something non-genre related.

For those of you who know a strong and beautiful woman who has fought this disease (ie, any woman who has fought this disease), or you just like the art, I'll let you know as the project progresses so you can have an opportunity to bid. I'll keep none of the proceeds, and am glad to be participating.