Tibetan monks perform a sky burial on the dead, they understand the raw vessel is but an empty shell, recycling the raw matter of our bodies back to the earth. The spirit has moved on.

What if the giant ships that ply the space lanes are built around a sentient AI? What if that AI possess a spirit? And when that AI has passed? The lumbering hulks are all that remain and they are given a sky burial.

About the work:

This is a traditional oil painting project I started in 2008 inspired by ship breaking but on a scale that dwarfs our sea going equivalents. As a film matte painter and concept artist I'm highly influenced by cinema - in this instance - David Leans, Lawrence Of Arabia.

These ships represent aspects of our society or ourselves that have served their usefulness and are being torn down, recycled or just abandoned for the empty concepts that they are. Social inertia allows these edifices to live on but like all things, they eventually crumble into dust and memory.

Sky Burial # 3 is an original oil painting, 60" x 23" (152.4cm x 58.5cm), oil on linen. The original painting resides in my personal collection.

This NFT artwork is 10k resolution. No other digital variant exists at this resolution on the internet except for the original scan.

• Shown at Illuxcon 2014/2015 • Exhibited at INFRA:Real, Jonathan Levine Gallery, NY, 2015

• A full size 1:1 fine art print will be given to the buyer of the NFT