DARK ART:
This artist previously worked on special effects for films including Edward Scissorhands, Terminator 2, Batman Returns, and Interview with the Vampire. This is his gallery of disturbing (I mean that in a good way!) mixed media collages.
The artist writes, "The characters in my work exist in a distant, half-remembered, autumnal place where even Halloween can last forever."
The Black Plague Art Show is taking place right now on Melrose in Los Angeles. The Congregation Gallery presents this curated set of macabre artworks. Artists include Jason Soles, Cam Rackam, Lacey Bryant, and Kelley Vetter. Even if you can't go see the show in person, the gallery website generously presents many images from the exhibition. My favorite is La Bella Morte Nera by Dan Harding.
23 artists use their unique style to illustrate one card from the Major Arcana (plus the card back). The project will be turned into a book and a deck of Tarot cards. While not every card is dark, I found myself utterly fascinated by each individual artist's interpretation of the cards. My favorite is Cate Rangel's "The Empress." I hadn't heard of most of these artists, so I have a lot of exploring to do in this page's links section!
An animator's gallery of fantastical art, featuring monsters and strange creatures. The combination of viewing the art while creepy embedded music plays on the page was too much, and I ended up having to turn my speaker's volume down. There's a lot of interesting things to see here. The detail on each painting is utterly amazing.
DARK GAMES:
Sometimes you need a little dark diversion from the typical Farmville Facebook game. Choose to play an exorcist or a demon. The game is by Dark Roast Media.
DARK LITERATURE:
A series of children's books. The main character, Araminta, lives in Spook House with her aunt and uncle. Her parents have been missing after their trip to Transylvania to hunt vampires. Araminta's dream in life is to see an actual ghost. The website features info on the author and the series, plus some downloads (a poster, a bookmark and two coloring sheets).
DARK MOVIES:
This website features high resolution posters from horror, sci-fi, exploitation, cult and B-movies. Very fun to look through their newest presentations every few days or so.
DARK MUSIC:
A post-punk darkwave band from Texas. I like them enough to mention them here (Dark Side of the Net only features things I like!) but I really wish they'd post higher quality songs with better mixing and more attention to the vocals, which can sound blurry and muddy in their MySpace and Last.fm uploads.
Ending the Vicious Cycle, on Facebook
Ending the Vicious Cycle at Last.fm
Ending the Vicious Cycle, on MySpace
They describe their sound as "creepy and depressing rock and roll."
The Funeral and the Twilight, on Facebook
The Funeral and the Twilight, on MySpace
I saw them play live last October in Portland, Oregon while waiting for my cousin's band to go on. I was blown away - what a fun band and a really energetic performance. Each band member is talented on multiple instruments. I heard a violin, a piano, an accordion, a trumpet, and even a glockenspiel. Their music is described as "vaudeville rock" or burlesque.
They really sold me with their "Spanish Inquisition" song, and another about the apocalypse. Be sure to listen to their "Birthday Dirge" on MySpace. If you're looking for something dark to listen to, this isn't the band for you - their music is cheerful, silly, and fun, but with a dark edge at times. I'd definitely drive a few hours to hear them play live again.
Juan Prophet Organization at CD Baby
Juan Prophet Organization on Facebook
Juan Prophet Organization, on MySpace
GOTH COMMUNITIES:
A very active, well-maintained community for goth, industrial, darkwave and dark alternative music fans. It's run on the Ning network, so there are all the usual options: videos, forums, blogs, and events listings. Somehow affiliated with The Church of Nightbreed. They're also organizing a music festival in 2011. Exciting!
GOTH NIGHTCLUBS:
Somehow this club never made it into my listings, though I knew about it. Duh! Anyway, it's a goth/industrial club two Saturdays a month in Salem, Massachusetts. Lots of cool events are coming up, including the Purgatory Ball on October 9, the Darque Gathering's 10th anniversary on October 22, and Darq Gala 3.0 on October 23rd.
http://www.myspace.com/darqsalem
DARK SHOPS:
An Etsy shop selling art prints, buttons, cute plush toys, felt dolls like this Bat in the Cemetery, and adorable little pins.
An Etsy shop selling cute Coraline plush dolls. I guess this is trademark infringement though, so I sort of feel bad linking to this.
This store's candles were based on research from Medieval-era documents. The store writes, "A series of candles has been created from ancient apothecary aromatics that bring illumination to the present." Their collections include The Vestments, The Hours, and The Vessels. Not very goth, but I was intrigued by the concept and wanted to show it to you.
A wholesale perfumery located in Los Angeles. They specialize in natural botanical scents. I love, love, love the packaging. I've only smelled the "Linden Blossom" and definitely liked it, but don't know what the other scents smell like. Besides the perfumes and body products, they sell essential oils and offer a really cool section of perfume lab equipment.
Not sure what the actual name of this shop is, their store says one thing but has Sludgefaktory in their logos and icons. They sell men's and women's clothing, straitjackets, and T-shirts.
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--Carrie Carolin
In my brief look around I couldn't work out the relationship between The Pray Silence Goth Community (at Ning), the commercial venture organising a festival in Lisbon, Portugal at the end August 2011, and Nightbreed Radio.
ReplyDeleteWorth keeping an eye on, especially if you're in Europe, I think. (And there seems to be quite a few members from the UK).
Orlando.