The Silence

Originally a creature concept for a graphic novel series that fell through the cracks of human organization, but the concept was so closely rooted to my deepest thoughts and fears that I find myself drawing and painting them all the time, despite having no story to root them to anymore. Menasi, mysterious transparent shapeshifters who are drawn to intense thoughts or emotions. When in the presence of someone having an intense feeling, the Menasi will transform into a ghostly copy of that person and broadcast their intense inner thought, living aloud the thought the person was unwilling or unable to express. In the scene depicted, death no longer exists, trapping people in perpetual sickness or mutilation with no way to escape their agonized bodies. In an act of desperation, a woman immolates herself, hoping that if she had no body, her suffering could end. After the ashes cool and the stunned crowd goes home, Menasi begins to fill the square. One by one they come and take the woman’s form, hugging themselves and calling out for rescue from the dark and quiet. As a concept, one of my oldest fears is that someone, somewhere, knows what I’m thinking, and one day they’ll suddenly broadcast all the things I want to keep hidden. These days I worry about that less. To all evidence, humans can't read minds. The idea that my conscious existence may one day be consciousness alone, devoid of sensation or novel thought or experience, however. The jury is still out on that one, and I end up thinking about it a lot.