Surprisingly, I’m not impressed by most horror masks (at least the ones I typically see in stores). But The Scarecrow’s Post has a truly noteworthy collection.
He seems to have found the pick of the litter in the world of scarecrow and pumpkin masks.
Hey look! Sam from Trick R Treat!
See the rest of the current collection here.
This automaton self-portrait by Thomas Kuntz, hand crafted from brass, steel and wood is a creepy masterpiece. Watch his head get severed and resurrected in this autobiographical cult allegory, Automaton: Death + Resurrection: In the Chamber of Reflection.
It’s funny how I’m virtually unshakable in the face of my traditionally “scary” things, but the thought of knitting with dog hair thoroughly unnerves me.
Even more disturbing is the fact that enough people are interested in the subject for a publisher to put out an instructional book.
The Brothers Quay are among my favorite stop motion animators of all time. I recently had the good fortune to visit the Dormitorium exhibit at Parsons in NYC, where I got to see some props and film sets in person.
I was surprised to find the film set dioramas smaller than I expected. So much detailed crafting went into each one of them.
The next two were encased in opaque boxes with a wacky 3D viewing lens…they lose something in the photos.
The sets incorporate the most fantastic found objects. Bits and pieces of discarded wood, instruments, dolls and furniture come to life.
Here, Jesus wears a crown of horns, and has wire eyelashes.
Even the lighting was arranged wonderfully, to reflect the mood of the exhibit.
You can see the rest of my photos here.
The Brothers Quay are masters of dark, atmospheric surreal film making. Almost no dialogue is used, nor is it needed. The films rely heavily on classic (often avant garde) soundtracks to complement the scene.
And if you’d like a sample animation:
My apologies if you’ve seen this before. But if anyone here hasn’t come across this invention (and has the urge to feel like part of a terrifying dystopian nightmare) who am I to withhold it?
Interactive media artist Mio I-zawa crafted this mechanical tumor that expands and contracts based on the amount of stress your computer is feeling.
Most of us know when we need to give our overheating CPU a rest, but in case you need a pulsating, malignant reminder…here’s how it works:
I-zawa also created a fleshy looking mechanical heart that moves in tandem with the user’s pulse. I must say, I’d like to walk around NYC with one of these, like it some sort of pet. Just for a day.
Every now and then I pop back on Luminous Lint to browse their fantastic photography exhibitions. Here are a few selections from the skull collection.
Some are actual medical images, quite disturbing (such as this 1966 Vietnam War X-ray of a grenade implanted in a man’s forehead):
Some are art photography…
(Look at the gentle detail of color in the eye of the feather!
More skulls here
Whenever my friend Damon shares a link, I know it’s going to be well worth checking out. I thank him for this twisted clip of straight-jacketed meat, ambling through the grocery store late at night…
What better way to commemorate leaders of the past than turning a likeness of their corpse into a giant cake?
To mark the 136th anniversary of V.I. Lenin’s birth (odd number to celebrate, no?), artist Yuri Shabelnikov created this life-sized cake in the late nineties.
I love the expressions on the children. The head section was saved for VIPs, naturally.
Source (of course)
Dan Harding has a knack for creating sinister monsters with excessive teeth (everything seems far more evil when you double the teeth).
I can recognize a fellow horror movie fan when I see one. This man clearly grew up on a steady diet of the genre, yet manages to turn out original creations.
Zombie fish!
Pretty, pretty…
Harding has some wonderfully macabre drawings as well.
More horrific fun on his website.
It’s a perfect day to share my little photo collection of antique medical leech jars. I originally set out on a google image odyssey for the word exsanguination, but it turned out to be very uninteresting.
So I give you these receptacles of a bygone era, used to house the slimy little agents of bloodletting.
I think this one is my favorite:
En Francais!
No frills…
And here’s a lovely vintage leech chart:
Personally, my body does not like being without its blood. Bad things happen.
SheWalksSoftly 