Friday the 13th: Vault of Shadow

Here's a little dark nugget to entertain on what promises to be at the very least an interesting Friday the 13th!  Over the next two days we have Uranus going retrograde as well as Mercury going retrograde.  This promises a certain level of intrigue as just a regular Mercury retrograde is usually enough to facilitate a great deal of mischief.  Enjoy the ride and try to hold on to your tempers as this is going to be a bumpy weekend.

Grey Days III: The Tower Grows Again

It seeks only its own expansion.

The tower of ego knows no limit, no retraction, no restraint.

Yet in the end, it will always fall.

Grey Days II: It Rises

A beast revealed, unburdens its deceit.
It climbs from the grave of earth,
revealed in horrible glory.

Grey Days I: From Within, The Beast

It casts no shadow,
It leaves no footprint,
Its reflection is your own.

From the Sketchbook Archives: Dream Shard

Images I recorded from a dream / nightmare. I think the image was from a dream but turned quickly into a story upon waking.  In the dream there was a black rectangular cuboid that was very shiny.  At its base was a grotesque substance that looked as though the feeling of illness were given a physical form.  It was olive colored with dark eggplant purple bubbles emerging from it. It had integrated itself into a building and was sticking out of a brick wall.

At the Crossroads of Doubt

At the crossroads of doubt,
even our most staunch truths abandon us.
We are wrapped in darkness,
lost to to wit and to reason.
The feel of our hands is confused, one to the other,
our own flesh in the darkness become a lie,
some murky beast come to torture.
Everything rings true
Everything stinks of lies
Everything cries out
Signal or Devil?
Signal or
Devil?
Signal
or -

This House

Some places are stained with a belligerence that takes on a life of its own.

Devil's Head IV: It Swims in Blood

It emerges from beneath red tides, parting the crimson mist.  It moves with a singular purpose, yet robotic. It lumbers past and into darkness, its muscled arms creak like leather pulled too tight.  Its breathing is ragged and wet, fading into the distance with each thud of its monstrous feet.

Devil's Head III: My Daemon

This piece was simultaneously disturbing and satisfying as I completed it because I realized I was looking at a part of myself.  It is actually kind of a relief to see this darkness and recognize it as my own.  The feeling here for me was very similar to what I felt upon the completion of The Fear.

Devil's Head II: The Unquiet Dead

In the dark caves of Hell, trapped and hungry, forgotten desires map out the cursed gift of their continuance.  Their garbled chanting wears the air thin with obscenities.  They stretch free of the underworld like separating meat.  Toothless and eager and undead, they seek us out for one last wet embrace.

Devils Head I: Dilemma of the Dark Votive

This is the beginning of a series of four pieces all of which were created from the same source material.  Each had its own voice and message, so I've chosen to give them each separate posts.

This piece struck me as the revelation of a dark device.  Some votive to an ancient devil suddenly discovered in your possession, its raspy voice whispering from the half light of a candle lit room.  What if the Monkey's Paw whispered to you in the night?

Observation of the Supplicant before the Throne

On the wings of thought and desire,
I send my petition into the other.

UPDATE Sketchbook Archives: Scream

Another of the Rescans.  When I glanced at this rescan, I didn't think there was much change between this one and the original, but once I saw the two together, there is a definite improvement!  Please check out the old post and compare.

UPDATE Sketchbook Archives: Red

Another update from the Rescans.  This one is completely changed by the Rescan.  With the darkness of this piece and the glare from the sharpies, there really was no way to get a decent shot of this one.  Once again the Scanner saves the day!  Please check out the old post and compare.

In the Valley of the Mask

At the bottom of our lives,

the soulless urge waits.

We've no reason to fear this skin we've shed,

yet a shiver still comes at its similarity

to our reflection in the mirror.
It is only absence,
it is only emptiness,
echoing the beating of our hearts.

Fear wears only the clothes we provide.

UPDATE Sketchbook Archives: Face of Darkness

Another update from the Rescans.  This is one that benefits greatly from the rescan.  No glare at all, in fact, you get some of the subtlety of the Sharpie transparency showing through on the scan.  That almost never shows up in reproduction.  Please check out the old post and compare.

UPDATE Sketchbook Archives: Winged Cat Demon

Here is another of the rescanned images from the sketchbook.  On this one, the scan was so much better than the photo I took, I didn't have to touch up the image at all.  Please check out the old post and compare.

Hell, Another Entrance

There are many roads into the Underworld...as many as there are names for it.  Hell, Hades, Underworld, Mictlan, Annwn, Niflheim, and on.  Sometimes, like it or not, you have to walk into it, because it is the only road before you.  All other avenues of escape have been removed and only darkness waits.  Pulsing darkness and pain that calls like an old addiction.  It wants you to believe that it is all there is.  The light was only a trick of your mind and only madness and blood are the truth.

Light and Dark Kachinas

Here are a couple of the little ginger bread astronaut men that drive my machine.  Made from the same source material and pretty much the same composition, I figured I'd keep them together.

The Process: As Above, So Below

This is a map of the intensity and resources and energy necessary to make even small changes in the world.  The Alchemy of Spirit, the challenge of bringing desire into reality. Viewing this piece finished was when I realized all the changes that I was making in my world were changing me, permanently.