If this were any other year, today would be cause for celebration, as it’s the birthday of my co-writer/creative partner and best friend Kevin Hutchinson. He was a very talented artist, someone I grew to know quite well over the last 10 years, as we worked together writing a large slate of feature films, a TV series, a web series, a bunch of shorts and more. At the moment, only one of those features has been produced (THE COLLAPSED), and I’m sitting on a mountain of developing work I must now move forward and produce without him.

Kevin passed away a little over a month ago, on August 31, much to the shock of everyone around him. I’ve had a little time to let it sink in, but I don’t think it’s going to ever truly settle. When the person with whom you did the majority of your creative work over the last 10 years is gone suddenly, what is the next step? How do you truly move on? I know that I can’t quit, and am proceeding forward, so that at least his ideas will continue to thrive. Realistically, considering how difficult it is to get something made, I know some of these projects may never see the light of day, but anything that does will carry his name proudly, and his shares will go to help his family.

There’s a lot I could say about this situation, but I’d end up repeating a lot of my eulogy. At this point, I wish to shed the spotlight on his work, as he was a bit of an underappreciated force in the arts/genre community. Not only that, but as an avid horror fan from youth, and a collector of FANGORIA for years, this seems like the proper place to share what those around him have known for years. For a full cross-section of his accomplishments, please visit his  at Second Skin Creations website, and his IMDb page. It took years, but he steadily built a huge body of work, on both large and small productions alike, and was beginning to get gigs on major productions such as PACIFIC RIM and the remakes of TOTAL RECALL and ROBOCOP. He was actually working on the latter film at the time of his passing.

Whether it was Kevin’s makeup FX, sculpting, writing or painting, I would like his work to speak for itself. There are a number of unseen things that have not yet been released, including his final painting (the new poster for the documentary SKULL WORLD, seen at left), and a short we produced that is about to premiere at Toronto After Dark. You can also see him on the current festival circuit as the villain in Astron-6’s new short BIO-COP (1st photo below). The point is that Kevin was an artist who never stopped creating, and the best way to preserve his memory is to make sure his art continues to be seen. Art has a life of its own, and while it’s no real comfort, at least it’s something.

I want to take this moment to once again offer my condolences to his friends, family and associates in the genre community. He met and touched the lives of many, and, as things were building for us, and the proverbial doors opening, was poised to impact many more. And he still will. My next major goal is to finally get THE ETERNAL, a film we’d been working to bring forward for years, produced and out. He may not be physically working on it anymore, but his fingerprints are all over the project, and many more.

At the end of the day, I think that’s a large part of what drives the artist: the legacy they leave behind. The impact they have on others. The stories and issues their work examines, and the physical record of a life that can exist long after it’s gone. Just like he was inspired by the work of Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Clive Barker, Dick Smith, Steve Johnson, Stan Winston and a bunch of ’80s horror films, I hope his work will go on to inspire someone else in some small way.

I will miss my friend, and wish he was still here with us, but am grateful for the time I spent working and sharing experiences with him. He impacted my life more than he could have possibly known, as I know he has many others, and I hope to help keep his memory alive over the years. Happy birthday, my dear friend, wherever you are.

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