Christoph Michaelis

Christoph Michaelis is a contemporary artist and photographer. His work is dark, sci-fi horror and surrealistic. Visit his SITE and Deviant art for more of his work.

Grýla, an Icelandic Christmas monster

Grýla by Þrándur Þórarinsson

Grýla, is in Icelandic mythology, a horrifying monster and a giantess living in the mountains of Iceland. She is said to come from the mountains at Christmas in search of naughty children. The Grýla legend has been frightening to the people of Iceland for many centuries - her name is even mentioned in Snorri Sturluson’s thirteenth century Edda. Most of the stories told about Gryla were to frighten children – her favourite dish was a stew of naughty kids and she had an insatiable appetite. Grýla was not directly linked to Christmas until in the 17th century. By that time she had become the mother of the Yule Lads. A public decree was issued in 1746 prohibiting the use of Grýla and the Yule Lads to terrify children. According to folklore Grýla has been married three times. Her third husband Leppalúði is said to be living with her in their cave in the Dimmuborgir lava fields, with the big black Yule Cat and their sons. As Christmas approaches, Grýla sets off looking for naughty boys and girls. The Grýla legend has appeared in many stories, poems, songs and plays in Iceland and sometimes Grýla dies in the end of the story.

Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse

A Dutch historian has put together a haunting photo series that merges the past and the present. For “Ghosts of War,” Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse superimposed images of World War II soldiers onto images of present-day European streets where they once fought.

Teeuwisse started her project after finding some 300 WWII photographs at a flea market. She then went about visiting the sites in the images and re-photographing the backgrounds. Teeuwisse said visiting the sites had a powerful emotional effect. “I knew what happened there, but knowing the exact spot of some detail will etch it into your visual memory,” she said. http://www.thedaily.com

Bolesław Biegas

Bolesław Biegas (1877–1954) was a Polish surrealist artist (painter and sculptor), best known for his "vampire-as-femme fatale" style of painting. His monstrous images have similarities with medieval monster illustrations and with the monstrous races from Ulisse Aldrovandi's Monstrorum Historia (1642). You can see more of his paintings in the great blog MONSTER BRAINS.

Also two of his sculptures, the most creepy I think:

Mighty Spirit

Chopin's Funeral March

Eugene Delacroix, Faust illustrations

In 1827, Eugene Delacroix created a set of 17 lithographs for a French edition of Goetheʼs “Faust”, using the newly invented medium of lithography. Goethe wrote on Delacroixʼs 1828 lithographs for Faust:  “Delacroix has surpassed my own vision.”

1827 - 1828, oil on canvas