I was asked to collaborate with writer Neil Baker recently for a project called 26 Ghosts where 13 writers from the writers organization 26 plus 13 artists worked together to release ghost stories with accompanying artwork in the 13 days running up to Halloween.
Neil sent me a copy of his story ‘Daddy Knows Nothing’ and you can read it here, if you dare that is…. http://26ghosts.org.uk/2014/10/daddy-knows-nothing/
I started working on some images very soon after reading Neil’s story because to be honest it was keeping me awake at night. It is a great story. I was haunted.
I did a lot of thinking about the use of wood in the story. Wooden coffins, wooden cupboards and also the grain of wood then something from my own childhood. When I was a kid I couldn’t sleep because I saw scary eyes in the wooden grain of the cupboard door I had to one side of me as I (tried to) sleep.
I wanted the wood in my image to look a bit like how a child would draw wood if they were trying quite hard to make it look interesting. So the wooden parts of the image are monoprints that were done after the images of the child’s face was printed from a copper drypoint plate. Red seemed right for the interior of the gap, the inside of coffins, the inside of us, blood, and then mixed with black, the colour of shadow, death, fear, the unknown.
It was a great experience working on this project. The story is unsettling and the imagery in it strong so it was fantastic to respond to visually. Thanks Neil for scaring the hell out of me, I enjoyed it, I think.
Neil sent me a copy of his story ‘Daddy Knows Nothing’ and you can read it here, if you dare that is…. http://26ghosts.org.uk/2014/10/daddy-knows-nothing/
I started working on some images very soon after reading Neil’s story because to be honest it was keeping me awake at night. It is a great story. I was haunted.
I did a lot of thinking about the use of wood in the story. Wooden coffins, wooden cupboards and also the grain of wood then something from my own childhood. When I was a kid I couldn’t sleep because I saw scary eyes in the wooden grain of the cupboard door I had to one side of me as I (tried to) sleep.
I wanted the wood in my image to look a bit like how a child would draw wood if they were trying quite hard to make it look interesting. So the wooden parts of the image are monoprints that were done after the images of the child’s face was printed from a copper drypoint plate. Red seemed right for the interior of the gap, the inside of coffins, the inside of us, blood, and then mixed with black, the colour of shadow, death, fear, the unknown.
It was a great experience working on this project. The story is unsettling and the imagery in it strong so it was fantastic to respond to visually. Thanks Neil for scaring the hell out of me, I enjoyed it, I think.
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