Tim O’Brien was given an article over the summer, to be published in Playboy, about a clandestine program to attempt to breed a human ape hybrid race in the Soviet Union around the time of the Second World War.  The goal was to breed a powerful and vicious soldier.

Tim had two ideas he wanted to paint: One was a tortured and crazy eyed chimp soldier behind some bars.  The second was a soldier with some real emotion on his face, almost an anxiety and a suspicious sideways glance.  The art director chose the latter and Tim got to work.

Artistic evolution ensued:

“The end of the story is that there are no results of this program, no rooms filled with the offspring of this effort,” says Tim. “However, they tried.”