Art, Dreams, and the Supernatural: A Mini-Essay

     From Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare (1781) and Francisco Goya’s El sueño de la razon produce monstrous (1799) to the illustrations in The Dreamer’s Sure Guide (1830) and John Fitzgerald’s The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of (1860), visual artists during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries began to explore the origin of dreams. As Nicola Brown highlights, much of these works drew upon a similar theme – “dreams are neither one thing nor the other: they are both physical and supernatural, material and spiritual.”[1] Indeed, their art parallels the era’s growing debate on the true nature of dreams and emphasizes, akin to much of the conversation occurring at that time, the perception that the supernatural played a central role in the dream process.[2] This debate, though, was not unique to just this specific time period. In fact, many ancient civilizations maintained that dreams opened a doorway to the supernatural and became a way to reveal a person’s fate. In certain regions of European, it was believed that a dream which occurred three nights in a row was destined to come true. Likewise, in some early Asian cultures, beliefs upheld that dreams revealed the opposite of what would occur in real life, with a wedding leading to a funeral or a death leading to birth.[3]

Works Referenced

Brown, Nicola. “What is the Stuff that Dreams are Made of?” The Victorian Supernatural. Ed. Nicola Brown, Carolyn Burdett, and Pamela Thurschell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.151-172.

Pickering, David. Dictionary of Superstition. London: Cassell, 1995.

____________________
[1] Brown, 151.
[2] Brown, 151-152.
[3] Pickering, 87-77.

Macabre Lamp

$30 - $40 (based on 2023 prices)

Makes one lamp

In 2023, I was commissioned by a local theater to serve as a consultant and prop builder for their production of The Haunting of Hill House, which was based on Shirley Jackson’s novel. Being a fan of the books since I was a teenager, I jumped at the opportunity and spent several months creating a collection of items to decorate both the house depicted on the stage and the cemetery created in the lobby to greet patrons before they entered the theater. For this prop, I fashioned a decorative lamp to adorn one of the tables in the Hill House set. To keep the cost down, I bought the lamp stand and shade at a second-hand store and used a set of winged skeletons I purchased on clearance the prior year.

• One twenty-four-inch base for a table-top lamp
• Two eighteen-inch winged skeletons
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat orange*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat turquoise*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in metallic copper*
• Two to three Halloween-themed paper napkins
• One 4 oz. bottle of decoupage medium
• One 10” x 12” lamp shade
• Two to three yards of black ribbon
• Two to three yards of black fringe tassel trim

1. After removing any decorative elements from the lamp base, thoroughly wash and dry the item. If there is any sticker residue, use rubbing alcohol to remove it (soak a paper towel in the solution, let it sit over the area for a few minutes, and wipe away the remaining glue).

2. Separate the arms and legs from the skeletons and cut their joints. Then, arrange the figures on the lamp’s base. By cutting the joints, you can position them into poses that are more natural, allowing them to hug the post. Once you have achieved your desired look, glue the skeletons in place. I used hot glue, but you can use superglue for a sturdier hold.

3. Cover the electrical cord in a plastic bag and use painter’s tape to cover the light socket to prevent paint from ruining the wiring. Following this, give the prop an even coat of black spray paint. Since this will become the base for the aged patina, you will only need one to two coats because much of it will be covered by the other hues.

4. Starting with a stippling of copper paint, build up layers of orange and turquoise to give the lamp the look of aged metal. How heavy you apply the patina depends on your aesthetic: you can go heavy for an extremely weathered look or light for a softer touch of age.

5. Cut or tear apart the napkins. For the best translucency, you want single-ply paper. If you cannot find one-ply paper napkins, simply separate the plies of multi-ply sheets. You can either isolate distinct images (as I did) or use random sections.

6. Cover the exterior surface of the shade with the cuttings, moving in stages to make this procedure manageable: apply a layer of decoupage medium to one section, press the paper down until it sticks, and repeat the process. For the best translucency, try not to overlap the sections because thicker layers will prevent the light from showing through. Once the decoupage medium dries, apply a final coat to serve as a sealer, guaranteeing your coverage is even and thin to achieve the best translucency.

7. Starting at the back of the shade, adhere black ribbon along the top and bottom borders. Then, glue the tassel trim to the bottom portion of the ribbons. I chose black for both to give the shade a uniform appearance; however, you can use two different colors – such as black and gray – for more contrast.

8. Attach the shade to the lamp stand and add a lightbulb. You can embellish the prop more by adding details like a swarm of insects crawling across the stand or bloody handprints inside the shade that appear whenever the light is turned on.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

"The Night Wind" (A Poem)

Known more for his humor, Eugene Field dips into darker themes with his poem “The Night Wind.” In the work, the narrator recounts a legend told to him by his mother when he was a child. In the myth, the wind calls out sinners with its whistling howl. In doing so, Field personifies the wind as a spectral figure who inflicts the consequences of wrongdoings.

Have you ever heard the wind go “Yooooo”?
‘T is a pitiful sound to hear!
It seems to chill you through and through
With a strange and speechless fear.
‘T is the voice of the night that broods outside
When folk should be asleep,
And many and many’s the time I’ve cried
To the darkness brooding far and wide
Over the land and the deep:
Whom do you want, O lonely night,
That you wail the long hours through?”
And the night would say in its ghostly way:
“Yoooooooo!
Yoooooooo!
Yoooooooo!”

My mother told me long ago
(When I was a little tad)
That when the night went wailing so,
Somebody had been bad;
And then, when I was snug in bed,
Whither I had been sent,
With the blankets pulled up round my head,
I’d think of what my mother’d said,
And wonder what boy she meant!
And “Who’s been bad to-day?” I’d ask
Of the wind that hoarsely blew,
And the voice would say in its meaningful way:
“Yoooooooo!
Yoooooooo!
Yoooooooo!”

That this was true I must allow –
You’ll not believe it, though!
Yes, though I’m quite a model now,
I was not always so.
And if you doubt what things I say,
Suppose you make the test;
Suppose, when you've been bad some day
And up to bed are sent away
From mother and the rest –
Suppose you ask, “Who has been bad?”
And then you’ll hear what’s true;
For the wind will moan in its ruefulest tone:
“Yoooooooo!
Yoooooooo!
Yoooooooo!”[1]

Works Referenced

Field, Eugene. “The Night Wind.” Love-Songs of Childhood. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1897. 6-8.
____________________
[1] Field, 6-8.

Severed Eye Cloche

$5 - $10 (based on 2020 prices)
Makes one display

Among the last builds for the laboratory theme was a series of small cloches containing a single specimen – an ear, an eye, and teeth – which served as small details placed among the larger towers of equipment. Featured here is the eye version.

• One plastic cloche with detachable base (roughly six inches tall)
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat black*
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in metallic silver*
• One 8 oz. can of oil-based interior wood stain in Jacobean*
• One small, white ping pong ball (1 3/8” in diameter)
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat brown*
• One 0.44 oz. bottle of clear nail polish
• Two to three feet of red yarn
• One 3/16” wooden dowel
• One glass doll eye

1. Cut the wooden dowel into a two-inch section. Depending on the height of the cloche, you may need to adjust this measurement. Then, use a 7/32 bit to drill a hole into the base’s center and glue the dowel in the opening.

2. On a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, build up layers of black and metallic silver spray paint to give the base and dowel the look of steel. It works best to apply a base coat of black followed by sliver, working in quick bursts to allow parts of the black to remain visible. You can also touch up portions with additional blasts of black if the silver becomes too heavy.

3. Once the spray paint dries, create a wash of brown paint and use it to add a level of grime to the prop, allowing the liquid to settle in the crevices.

4. Cut a two-inch section from the yarn and fray the ends. These will serve as the veins for the eyeball. Apply a light layer of glue to the ping pong ball and, using a needle or other finely tipped object, spread the yarn strands across it. How bloodshot you plan to make the prop all depends on how thinly you separate the strands: a thorough division will produce a finer appearance; thicker clusters will create a more inflamed looked.

5. After the glue has dried, adhere the glass doll eye to the center of the ball and coat the entire thing with one or two layers of clear nail polish. To make this process easier, make a small stand out of an upturned paper cup or plate.

6. Once the nail polish has dried, cut ten strands of yarn in varying lengths and glue them to the back of the eyeball to form the optic nerve. Although this may look goofy now, the effect will be much more impressive after you apply the clear nail polish in step eight.

7. Position the eye on the top of the dowel and glue it in place. Depending on the height of the cloche, you may need to play with the eye’s placement or shorten the dowel so it properly fits under the enclosure. 

8. Wrap the yarn around the dowel, using the needle or fine-tipped object from step four to spread the strands outward along the base. Once you have achieved your desired look, coat the yarn in clear nail polish to give it a glossy appearance and permanently seal the strands in place. You can also use a glossy decoupage medium for this process if the fumes from the nail polish become too overpowering.

9. On a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, stain the cloche. Start by applying a thin coat and patting it with paper towels to produce a hazed appearance. Then, brush the edges to create the illusion of grime buildup. You want to refrain from making the coverage too thick, though, because it can obscure the eye inside. 

10. After the stain has dried, reattached the cloche to its base. For additional detail, you an embellish the prop with a specimen tag or biohazard label to cater it to your haunt’s theme.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

The Origins of Voodoo: A Mini-Essay

     Just like the indigenous people of North America and the Aztecs and Mayans of Mesoamerica, enslaved Africans in the Americas blended their religious ideologies with those of Christianity to develop hybrid faiths, including voodoo. Originating in the Caribbean during the sixteenth century as the slave trade brought Africans into the area to work on sugar plantations, voodoo evolved over time as it spread into other regions, resulting in a complex web of beliefs and practices which vary from society to society.[1] At its heart, though, the voodoo religion – whether practiced in Haiti or Louisiana – maintains that the divine god Bondye created the universe and, because he is too busy to deal with it, appointed loa to oversee and participate in its functions. These loa can be both benevolent and malevolent, so humans must perform ceremonies to either appease the good loa or ward off the evil loa. Due to its similarity to Catholicism’s God and saints, voodoo paired well with the religion of colonists and Africans incorporated Christian figures and symbols into the faith: the cross became associated with the crossroads between the living and dead, the trinity became a representation of the loa, the Twins, and the Dead, and the Virgin Mary and other saints served as representations of various loa.[2] Sadly, early colonizers perceived voodoo as a product of the Devil and worked to vilify its beliefs and those who practiced it, with those perceptions still maintained today. Yet, as anthropologist Wade Davis explains, voodoo during the colonial period as well as in modern society became a way for Africans to understand themselves and their role within the world: “It’s not just a body of religious ideas, but a notion of how children should be raised, a notion of what education means, an awareness of politics.”[3]

Works Referenced

 

Handwerk, Brian. “Voodoo a Legitimate Religion, Anthropologist Says.” National Geographic News, 21 October 2002.

 

Stephens, John Richards. “True Voodoo.” Voodoo: Strange and Fascinating Tales and Lore. Ed. John Richard Stephens. New York: Fall River Press, 2010.

____________________ 
[1] Stephens, 1-5.
[2] Stephens, 1-5.
[3] Handwerk.

Oracle Frame

$15 - $20 (based on 2024 prices)
Makes one frame

While perusing the Halloween merchandise at one of the big-box stores, I spotted a frame with a single eye in it. I was immediately inspired to craft my own version based on a fortuneteller theme. It also gave me the chance to experiment with air clay. I normally use modeling clay for these types of projects; however, I wanted to see if air clay would be better. Sadly, I was not impressed because the clay shrank more than I anticipated and I had to add extra clay to compensate for the reduction.

• One 7” x 10” oval picture frame
• One sheet of copy paper with vintage fortunetelling illustrations printed on it
• At least four tablespoons of dark roasted coffee grounds
• One pan large enough to soak the copy paper
• One 4 oz. bottle of decoupage medium
• Two small, white ping pong balls (1 3/8” in diameter)
• One 1 oz. package of red air clay
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat beige*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat gray*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat pink*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in glossy white*
• One 0.44 oz. bottle of clear nail polish*
• One package of false eyelash clusters
  

1. Coffee stain the copy paper by boiling about twelve cups of water and adding the coffee. The longer you allow the coffee to brew, the darker the stain will become. Likewise, greater amounts of coffee will yield a richer stain. Since I wanted uneven spots rather than a unified discoloration, I placed the paper on a baking sheet, splashed coffee and grounds onto the surface, allowed the liquid to sit for a few minutes, and then moved it to a space to dry.

2. Disassemble the frame, removing the backing and the glass. Then, tear apart the paper, isolating individual illustrations, and cover the entire surface of the frame with the pieces. This process works best if you move in stages: apply a layer of decoupage medium to one section, press the paper down until it sticks, and repeat the process. If you want to add an additional level of age once the paper has dried, you can water down brown acrylic paint and brush it over the frame.

3. Cut the two ping pong balls in half and glue them to the frame’s backing. Where you place them will determine the location for the oracle eyes, so you may want to play with their placement prior to adhering them. Due to the size of my frame, I was only able to incorporate three eyes; however, you can add more by either increasing the size of the frame, using smaller ping pong balls, or clustering the eyes closer together.

4. Use the air clay to build up flesh around the eyes and across the surface of the backing. Although you can go for a smooth appearance, lots of divots and wrinkles will give the prop more visual interest, especially after it is painted. Also, keep in mind that the air clay will shrink as it dries, so you will need to make the flesh larger than the frame to accommodate this.

5. Once the air clay has fully dried, give it two coats of beige paint and the eyes three coats of glossy white paint. For the time-pressed haunter, you might consider buying air clay in beige to skip part of this step and just paint the eyes with glossy white.

6. Smudge pink paint along the surface of the skin, focusing on the raised areas to make the clay look like flesh. Then, use a wash of gray to darken the eyes’ surfaces and give them a murky appearance. You may want to experiment with the consistency prior to doing this: the more water you add, the fainter/lighter the wash; the less water you add, the deeper/darker the wash.

7. To give the eyes further shine and seal the wash, coat them in glossy nail polish. Following this, glue fake lashes to the eyelids and randomly in the skin. Try not to overthink your application. Rather, make the lashes sparse and sporadic for a creepier look.

8. Reattach the backing to the frame, gluing it in place for a sturdier hold. If you want to add further embellishments, like voodoo beads or talismans made of aged bones, you can cater the prop to your haunt’s theme.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

"Origin of the Marble Forest" (A Poem)

Similar to Emily Dickinson’s “One need not be a Chamber to be Haunted” and Elizabeth Jennings’ “Ghosts,” Gregory Orr’s “Origin of the Marble Forest” uses the concept of ghosts in a metaphorical way. In this short, five-line poem, the narrator refuses to allow people associated with their past to slip away into faded memories. Rather, they want to preserve them, making them eternal and ever-present.

Childhood dotted with bodies.
Let them go, let them
be ghosts.
No, I said,
make them stay, make them stone.[1]

Works Referenced

Orr, Gregory. “Origin of the Marble Forest.” City of Salt. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995. 3.
____________________
[1] Orr, 3.

Corpse Skull

$10 - $15 (based on 2024 prices)
Makes one skull

I spent some time during the summer of 2024 experimenting with corpsing techniques. I have never been a fan of the plastic-and-heatgun method, specifically because of the toxic fumes it creates. So, I decided to find alternate processes. Building on the tactic I used to make the fake leather for Hugh Crane’s book, I used papier mache and tissue paper. The results turned out better than I expected and, with a little more refining, it can become an effective alternative.

• One human-size plastic skull
• One 8 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue
• One newspaper (roughly twenty pages)
• Three to four sheets of white tissue paper (20” x 20” per sheet)
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat brown*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat gray*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat tan*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat white*

1. Thoroughly wash and dry the skull, removing any decorative elements to give the glue a clean surface to adhere to. For aesthetic purposes, I chose just to corpse the cranium and saved the jaw for another project; however, you can corpse both, gluing the jaw agape for a gnarled look.

2. Make the papier mache paste by mixing ½ cup of glue and ½ cup of water in a bowl. Try to use a sealable container. This gives you the ability to store the mixture for a day or two between applications. Then, cut the newspaper into strips, soak them in the paste, and apply them to the skull. To make the process more manageable, keep the strips at a reasonable size and only apply a few layers at a time, allowing each layer to fully dry before adding more.

3. Once you have built up the facial features, repeat the process in step two with tissue paper, using it to create wrinkled flesh, mangled tissue around the mouth and nose, and wounds along the crown of the skull. How much paper you use depends on how wrinkled you want the skin, so you may need more sheets of tissue paper if you plan for a rumpled appearance.

4. After the final layer of tissue paper dries, give the skull two to three coats of tan paint and the teeth and any exposed bone a coat or two of white. This gives the prop a uniform base and helps cover any of the newspaper which is still visible. Although I used acrylic paint for this process, the time-pressed haunted can utilize tan spray paint for a quicker application.

5. Working from dark to light, stipple brown and gray paint onto the skull to make the flesh look aged. Try not to overthink your application because a random application will look more natural and give the skull extra visual interest.

6. To mute the colors and add further depth, apply a wash of black paint to the skin, ensuring the liquid settles into all the cracks and fissures. You may want to experiment with the consistency prior to doing this: the more water you add, the fainter/lighter the wash; the less water you add, the deeper/darker the wash.

7. Using the same methods in step six, build up washes of black and brown paint – working from light to dark – to age the teeth and any exposed bone. You can also use a fine-tipped brush to outline the spaces between the teeth and where they connect to the skull with black paint.  

8. Paint the insides of the nose black and then, using a razor blade, make a slit for the eye and darken its interior with black paint. The second half of this step is entirely optional, but it gives the skull more character.  

9. If you want, you can embellish the skill with additional details, such as worms crawling out of its eye or patches of hair, to cater the prop to your haunt’s needs.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

The Aztec Origins of Dia de los Muertos: A Mini-Essay

          Unlike many European cultures, the Aztecs of Mesoamerica did not fear the uncertainty of death. Rather, they perceived death as a release from the burdens of life and honored the god of death, Mictlantechuhtli. According to Aztec lore, there were thirteen levels of the heavens and nine layers in the underworld, with how someone died dictating where they went: brave warriors who died honorably in war ascended to the highest level as butterflies and hummingbirds, whereas cowards who faced death with dishonor were relegated to the lowest level of the underworld. Because the journey to the afterlife – Mictlán – was a long and arduous process filled with trials which lasted four years, relatives of the dead held yearly festivals to honor the deceased on their journey, with one occurring in the fall when it was believed the dead returned to visit the living. Food from the harvest was laid out and relatives remained in a squatting position throughout the night to prevent themselves from catching the gaze of returning spirits.[1] The arrival of Spanish colonists during the sixteenth century and the forced assimilation and Christianization of the Aztecs, in turn, blended beliefs and traditions into a unique holiday: the Christian practice of visiting cemeteries and adorning graves with flowers gave birth to arches of marigolds and the Christian feasts of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day merged into the Aztec harvest festival.[2]

Works Referenced

Williams, Kitty, and Stevie Mack. Day of the Dead. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2011.
____________________
[1] Williams and Mack, 20-22.
[2] Williams and Mack, 26-27.

Wooden Crate

$50 - $60 (based on 2022 prices)
Makes one crate

At the end of 2022, I was asked to make a set of props for a local theater’s production of Christmas Belles. Being unable to make many props for the Halloween season, I jumped at the opportunity to do something creative. For this prop, I used the painting technique for the withered boards to create a wooden crate one of the characters carried offstage. The director wanted something large and heavy looking but extremely lightweight, so I built the entire thing out of foam insulation boards.

• Four 24” x 24” boards of foam insulation
• One package of wooden toothpicks (at least 132 picks)
• One 4 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue*
• One 8 oz. can of exterior paint in flat white*
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat tan
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat brown*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat khaki*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat tan*

1. Cut one of the foam boards into two 12” x 24” sections and another board into two 12” x 22” sections, reserving the excess for the crate’s trim in step five. How large you decide to make the crate will impact the dimensions of these pieces. For a smaller version, you can go with two 6” x 24” sections and two 6” x 11” sections.

2. Evenly space toothpicks along the sides of the boards, leaving ¾” sticking out. These will serve as nails to help hold the boards in place and give the crate extra stability.  

3. Align the panels along the edges of one of the 24” x 24” boards to form the base of the box. Then, run a small line of glue between the seams and push everything together, driving the toothpicks into the foam. If you elected to make a smaller version of the prop, the board for the base will need to measure 12” x 12”.

4. Repeating the process in steps two and three, line the edges of the panels with toothpicks, run a small line of glue along their edges, and attach the second 24” x 24” board to complete the box. Here, too, you will need to reduce the board’s size to 12” x 12” for a smaller version.

5. Cut the excess foam reserved from step one into four 21” x 1.5” sections, four 24” x 1.5” sections, four 11” x 1.5” sections, four 16” x 2.5” sections, four 21” x 2.5” sections, and four 24” x 2.5” sections. As before, you can cut these dimensions in half for a smaller crate.

6. Glue the four 16” x 2.5” sections and four 21” x 2.5” sections to two of the 14” x 24” ends of the crate on opposite sides of each other, leaving a half-inch overhang. For added support, drive toothpicks into them. Then, repeat the process with the four 11” x 1.5” sections and 24” x 2.5” sections on the remaining two 14” x 24” ends of the crate. Finally, attach the four 21” x 1.5” sections and four 24” x 1.5” sections to the box’s bottom and top.

7. Use the blunt end of a pen to create wood grain, nail holes, and slats in the foam. You can also use a wood-burning tool or soldering iron to do this; however, if you do, ensure you that you wear a mask and perform the task outside because the fumes are toxic.  

8. On a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, give the entire box two coats of exterior paint. This will serve as a barrier to protect the foam from the spray paint applied in step nine. For the time-pressed haunter, you can use tan paint for this process and completely skip step nine.  

9. Give the entire crate a light coat of tan spray paint, allowing portions of the white paint to show through. This will help give the wooden patina more depth by contrasting the darker tan with the lighter white.

10. Moving from dark to light, brush hues of brown onto the crate to give the illusion of wood. I found applying several globs of paint to the box and using a paper towel to smudge it works well. Also, for the best results, smear the paint in the same direction to create a uniform grain and add additional paint to certain areas to make discolorations.

11. To finish the patina and add a level of distress, brush black paint between the slits and into the nail holes. You can also smear black in random places to give the prop further depth.

12. Although the director of the play wanted the prop to remain relatively simple, you can embellish it with additional details, such as the word fragile written across the side or weathered shipping labels adhered to its surface, to cater the prop to your haunt’s theme.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.