A Dream Within a Dream

The Dark Season is upon us and now reveals itself. The air chills and sharpens, and our senses quicken and tremble.

It is the perfect time to share these beautifully eerie portraits I created for this poetic season, a season where everything is heightened, and where those happy few who are in touch with the strangeness of our existence, and who are more in tune to what lies beyond the veil of night, come to the fore and experience our mysterious world on a deeper, more sensuous level.

All of these pictures were taken before the end of 2019, before the world changed forever.
I have an extra appreciation for them now; their cinematic mystery and enchanting diaphanous quality evoke a feeling we desperately need to inhabit again. A portal, a magical realm, an escape from our perceived and binding "reality." After all, isn't our reality only what we choose to experience at any given moment? Perhaps it's time again to believe in something more. Such as they did in those times long... long ago... when people still believed in witches?

And with that, my dear Creatures of the Night, 

I hereby present...

A Dream Within a Dream
(Atmospheres and Apparitions)

"Is all that we see or seem,
But a dream within a dream?"

- Poe, The Raven

Part 1: 

Hauntology

Seul au clair de lune... au clair de lune serioux

"Let the moon shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty sea-winds be free
To blow against thee."
- Wordsworth, 'Tintern Abbey'

A Different Kind of Blue

"From here, So high,

We drift, We fly,

With twilight breakthrough...

A different kind of blue."

- Passengers, 'A Different Kind of Blue'

AlwaysForeverNow

"The distinction between the past, present and

future, is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

- Albert Einstein

 Sofie the Fortune-Teller

"You know, the people in these towns,

they're asleep. All day, at work, at home.

They're sleepwalkers. We wake them up."
- Sofie, 'Carnivale,' HBO

Rose Quartz

"The Divine is everywhere, all you have to do is look."

- Casper David Friedrich

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

"Everywhere there are spirits.
They are all around us."

- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Forever... and ever... and ever...

"I'm sorry to differ with you Sir, 

but YOU are the Caretaker.
You've always been the caretaker.
I should know, Sir, I've always been here."

- The Shining

The Science of Ghosts

"You know that Freud had to deal all
his life with ghosts? It's simply the art of letting the 
Ghosts come back. And it's the ghosts

who will answer you. Perhaps they already have. 

Ghosts are part of the future."
- Jacques Derrida, 'Hauntology'



Strange Neighbourhood

"But this place is too cold for Hell.

I'll Devil porter it no further."
- William Shakespeare, 'Macbeth'

Part II: 

Witchcraft, Wicked Witchcraft

Lilith

"Witches are always women who dare to be:

groovy, courageous, aggressive, intelligent, nonconformist,

explorative, curious, sensually liberated, revolutionary."

Kristen. J Sollee, 'Witches, Sensualists, Feminists'

The Hunter

"She is the Hunter,

You are the Hunted..."
- Brett Anderson, 'The Hunter'

The Ghosts in the Machine

"The modern technology of images and 

communication, the strange aliveness of the 

electric current,

all these energetic pathways have surely

enhanced the power of ghosts and 

their ability to haunt us. It is up to

us whether we have the courage to

allow their magic to illuminate

our lives that can lift us periodically

 from the dreariness of the everyday."

- Kafka

Only After Dark

"I feel my spirit fly,

Only After Dark...
Why don't you fly, fly
Fly with me,
Sweet elusive fate will
Be our company...
Only After Dark."
- Mick Ronson, 'Only After Dark'

Coffee & Poe

"For the rare and radiant maiden,

Whom the angels name Leonore,

Nameless here forevermore."
Poe, 'The Raven'

After Dark

"In her eyes, 

a distant fire light burns bright,

And I'm wondering why
It's only After Dark?"

- Tito & Tarantula, 'After Dark'

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

"You are so vulnerably haunting.
Your eeriness is terrifyingly irresistible.

You appear to be in touch with something

we mere mortals shall never know."
- Franz Kafka

The Double

"Mirrors on the ceiling,
Pink champagne on ice...

Living it up at the Hotel California,

What a nice surprise...

Bring your alibis."

- The Eagles, Hotel California

'Lebensfreude (Joy of Life)

"Real art must always involve

some witchcraft."
- Isak Dinesen

 Sternenaugen (Starlike Eyes)

"A Witch is a person who has honestly

explored their light, and has evolved

 to celebrate their darkness."

- Dacha Avelin

The Haunted Dancehall (of Paradise)

"Midnight, and the Stars & You,

Midnight... and a rendezvous.
Your eyes held a message tender
Saying, "I surrender all my love to you."
Midnight... brought us sweet romance,
I know all my whole life through,
I'll be remembering you,

Whatever else I do...

Midnight, and the stars and you."

- Irving King, 'Midnight and the Stars and You'

Happy Halloween, my Devilish Darlings.

Bites & Kisses!

xxx

"There are, in our times, many people on a low,

material plane of existence, quite incapable of appreciating

the symbolic value of sensuous phenomena.

How eternally thankful we must be if we are not one of them."

- Oscar Wilde.

The Twilight Hour

"Whether I believe in ghosts or not,

I say...
Long live the ghosts!"