I loved your panel at ECCC! My favorite audience question came from a PK who asked who “your” Bev Keane was. I had considered asking you the same question because every exvangelical I’ve watched it with has asked the same question: “woah, who is this guy’s Bev Keane?” You don’t have to tell us, but how does it sit with you that a character that you felt might be too over-the-top apparently exists in every single congregation to such an extent that most people can name “their” Bev Keane?
I think Bev Keanes are everywhere, unfortunately. They've been normalized. The real Bevs are men and women in the Senate, they're in Congress - they're judges, they're lawyers, they're politicians, they're CEO's, they're running megachurches and banning books and demonizing science and propagating batshit conspiracies and stinking up PTA meetings and making scenes in coffee shops, fast food joints and parking lots. They've infiltrated all walks of American life, used the internet and social media to multiply like the viruses and they've only been emboldened, amplified, and reinforced.
I don't really have "my" Bev Keane. She was a fictional character who I considered a bit of an amalgamation (and a lot of an exaggeration) when I started working on this story over a decade ago. Today, my Bev seems downright moderate compared to some of the absolute lunatics I see frothing their bile on the evening news... and that sits very uneasily with me.
Do you have guilt in your heart for doing what you had to do?
digital painting, 17 hours - drawing video under the cut
after doing two more challenging/original effort/multiple references paintings, it was frankly a relief to just stick to the one reference on this one. best of the no thoughts head empty just draw
i love hamish linklater's face in midnight mass, so expressive. i knew i wanted to paint it at some point and wet and messy father paul jumped out at me
Of all the amazing moments in the Midnight Mass finale, I think my favorite will always be Annie telling Bev off. She’s the perfect person to do it, someone who actually believes and LIVES her faith. But she also does it in the same matter of fact tone of voice that Bev spouts everything, and it’s just....beautiful
When I see mike flanagan directing a show I know she is gonna serve as the Most White Woman To Ever White Woman and you know what? It’s incredible every time.