A Labor of Lovecraft

October 14, 2014 by Donna from MyOBT 9 Comments

Squealing White Thing ©Michael Bukowski

 

“I was much less disturbed by the vaguer tales of wails and howlings in the barren, windswept valley beneath the limestone cliff; of the graveyard stenches after the spring rains; of the floundering, squealing white thing on which Sir John Clave’s horse had trod one night in a lonely field;”

– H.P. Lovecraft, The Rats In the Walls

Artist Michael Bukowski has taken on an herculean task. He’s set out to illustrate all the creatures from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. As he pointed out, in some cases, Lovecraft’s descriptions are highly detailed, but in others, he leaves most of the details to the imagination. As you look at Bukowski’s work, it becomes immediately apparent just how much imagination he possesses. When I started hunting around for more information about him, one of the first things I came across was this statement on his website:

“Michael Bukowski will not do artwork for bands that have racist, sexist or homophobic lyrics.”

Good for him! Of course, he’s dedicated an awful lot of his career thus far to illustrating the works of HP Lovecraft, who was an infamous racist and misanthrope, so maybe he’s already got enough hate in his life. Nonetheless, I thought that was a pretty stand-up thing for an artist to say.

I have really enjoyed scrolling through all the monsters on his blog, As if the Lovecraft project wasn’t enough, he’s also doing other creatures that speak to him; characters from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology, characters inspired by song lyrics, Richard Nixon, and other monsters. To each, he lovingly adds these super-creepy little details that give the images so much depth. They really stick with you. I hope you have fun looking at his work. I certainly did!

(Warning: while the images I’ve posted are pretty tame, there are an awful lot of sex organs in Mike’s work, so proceed to his website with caution.)

Yog-Sothoth ©Michael Bukowski

Cthulu ©Michael Bukowski

Hound of Tindalos ©Michael Bukowski

Coloroutofspace ©Michael Bukowski

Tsathoggua ©Michael Bukowski

Charybdis ©Michael Bukowski

Shoggoth ©Michael Bukowski

Leng Spider ©Michael Bukowski

Shub Niggurath ©Michael Bukowski

Shub Niggurath ©Michael Bukowski

Martian ©Michael Bukowski

Ghast ©Michael Bukowski

Ghatanothoa ©Michael Bukowski

“Apollo, chasing Daphne, gain’d his prize
But lo! she turned to wood before his eyes.”
H.P. Lovecraft, On the Vanity Of Human Ambition ©Michael Bukowski