Gods and Monsters started life on Tumblr in the late 2000s, as Lavey experimented with Photoshop, combining his trademark dark monochrome encounters between ‘bears’ and ‘cubs’ with found background images of warehouses, abandoned factories and truckstops. Being something of a bear himself – heavy-set and projecting an idealised image of rugged masculinity – his images convey something of autobiography and of fantasy, both for himself and for his audience.

The theme subsequently developed into a collection of drawings and paintings, resulting in an exhibition in early 2016 at the H Gallery in Peekskill in upstate New York, his one-person show Gods and Monsters.