I DREAM OF CTHULHU
Okay, we all know Lovecraft was a terrible racist, but the innovative and visionary worlds crafted in his stories have impacted and inspired generations of creative output by writers, artists, musicians, and occultists. I was lucky enough to have been asked to be a part of Trevor Henderson‘s HP Lovecraft illustration zine project, called Puffed Shogoths. Check it out!
If you haven’t read or listened to HP Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu, do it now! My picture is of Henry Anthony Wilcox, a vital character in that story. Wilcox is a young artist tormented by dark dreams of monsters and gods and destruction, and it is his sculpture of Cthulhu that sets the story into motion. I’ve always been fascinated by dream landscapes, and the power of speaking with spirits and gods through dreams. There is a considerable interplay between Lovecraft’s work and old tales of the witches’ sabbath – (primarily) women whose spirits, in dreamtime, travel to places and speak with beings unknown to the common human eye. Historian Carlo Ginzburg in his Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath discusses this phenomena, and late occultist Andrew Chumbley’s work on sabbatic witchcraft takes the practice forward into contemporary use. Perhaps Lovecraft was inspired by tales of the sabbath, and maybe Ginzburg and Chumbley were, in turn, inspired by Mr Lovecraft.
Hey, a girl can dream!
I’ll post more information on Puffed Shogoths when I get it. The line-up is looking pretty fantastic, and I’m honoured to be among a roster of such talented folks!
