Halloween Art and Travel

Meet artist Amber Leilani, a creator of folk surrealist paintings and mixed media. When I met Amber, she was sculpting. Repetitive wrist injuries made sculpting painful for her. She discovered painting is better suited for her wrists and she is obsessed.

Amber recently changed her main focus from Halloween and Day of the Dead to nature-based topics. This change was deliberate. She still likes to have her gothic look come through. One of her favorite things to paint is ladies with skull faces which she often revisits.

She is using her stay-at-home time as an opportunity to take classes, practice, and experiment without the pressure of selling.

Amber reads daily. Her love of the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire inspired her favorite piece of all time. Two of the characters from the books are twins named Jack and Jill. Amber interpreted them as Frankenstein's monsters, with a twist. She made them conjoined (even though they aren’t conjoined in the book).

You'll find her listening to music while she paints. She likes music with vampire and witchy vibes. It sounds like Halloween all year in her studio.

Amber also collects art. Her favorite pieces commemorate her wedding and her beloved cat, Cash. The fan favorite in her house is a paper mache vampire who hangs upside down in her coffin.

Amber’s heart belongs in New Orleans – she calls it her “doorway to where she belongs.” Upon arriving in New Orleans, she saw a man on a bike wearing a kilt with a Viking hat. New Orleanians accept people for who they are, not what they do. Amber also loves all the surprises there - “you never know what you are going to see.”

Amber now lives in a historic district of Raleigh, NC. Her neighborhood loves Halloween. Last Halloween Amber and her husband had 1,000 trick-or-treaters show up. Amber was so excited for Halloween that she got up at 6 a.m. She wanted to take in as much of the day as possible.

Check her out at https://www.amberleilani.com. She is @amberleilani_art on Instagram.

My website is https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com.

Meet Zan Asha, an artist who is blending fairytales, nature, folklore, and Halloween into her art.

Zan is friendly, fun, and has one of the most interesting family and career stories I’ve ever heard. Zan has done time in corporate life, been a vet tech, directed a dance troupe, written, traveled, illustrated, and kept bees.

Zan’s family is a blend of Hungarian (Slavic), Romany, and Middle Eastern roots. Her childhood was full of fairytales and folk songs from her parents. In addition to fairytales, Zan loves mythology, ancient knowledge, secrets, Alice In Wonderland, Halloween, and forest animals.

Zan grew up in New York City and moved to Florida when she was a teenager. She returned to NYC to study film and theater at NYU. After school, she spent a decade running a dance and theater troupe. After the 2008 recession, Zan moved from dance to bee-keeping as part of an initiative of bringing bees back to the Bronx.

Zan moved back to Florida to care for her parents. A car accident damaged her back. As an active person, Zan felt miserable and lost. A lover of learning, Zan started to investigate different art mediums. An interest in working in 3D lead her to functional ceramics. A kind pottery shop owner taught her how to make hand-built pottery. Her friend Carolee Clark validated her pottery was on the right path. She will be participating in the Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween art show this year.

Last October, Zan’s home was damaged during Hurricane Michael. It is still under reconstruction. The garage with her kiln has no lights yet, so when she works at night, she needs a flashlight. Her studio is crammed into her bedroom. Many of her art supplies are still in storage.

To wrap up the show, Zan shared with us a Hungarian hedgehog fairytale. She encourages us to make life as colorful as possible and to take risks.

Check her out at https://www.themagicalvagabond.com/. She is on Facebook and Instagram as “themagicalvagabond”.

My website is https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com.

Enter the fantasy world of Paul Haigh, a chemist turned potter, who creates weird stuff for weird people. His work is a blend of his fascination with horror, mythology, science fiction, and games like Dungeons and Dragons. Ultimately, Paul sees his work as an escape from the real world.

Paul is known for his face jugs, which are wheel-turned jugs with faces stuck on them. Traditionally, the faces are abstract or even cartoonish, but Paul enjoys making his look realistic. Originally face jugs were made by enslaved people in the American South. There are many theories on the original purposes of face jugs, ranging from religious practices to grave markers. It is common for the expressions and features on face jugs to be scary. The creepy faces may have been designed to scare off evil spirits or to keep children from consuming booze stored inside. This type of pottery fell out of favor in the 1920s but was later revitalized by potters to sell to tourists.

Sculpting realistic human faces is a challenge. Our brains are specialized in recognizing human faces and we can easily spot mistakes. It took years of practice for Paul to be satisfied with his work. There’s a lot of broken pottery from when he was still learning.

Paul enjoys interacting with collectors at art shows. He loves that a significant portion of his collectors are women over 60. With their wisdom and confidence, they no longer care what others think of them and they collect what they want.

Paul lives in central North Carolina, near Seagrove, the pottery capital of the United States. Highway 705, which runs through the region, is nicknamed the Pottery Highway. Paul was a potter prior to moving to NC from New Hampshire. One of the highlights of creating pottery in NH was his wood firing kiln, made from 30,000 pounds of brick with a 15-foot chimney.

Mentions:

• Carolina Pottery Festival (Shelby, NC in November): http://www.ccartscouncil.org/carolinapottery/
• Catawba Valley Pottery Festival (Hickory, NC in March): https://catawbavalleypotteryfestival.com/
• Holly Arts Festival (Pinehurst, NC in October): https://www.homeofgolf.com/events/
• League of NH Craftsmen Fair (Concord, NH in August): https://nhcrafts.org/annual-craftsmens-fair/
• Ryan “Humanburger” Jones: https://ryanjonesartwork.bigcartel.com/
• RVA Krampus (Richmond, VA in December): http://www.rvakrampus.com/
• Star Works NC: https://www.starworksnc.org/

Check out Paul’s work at:

• https://www.whmudworks.com/
• https://m.facebook.com/Wiley-Hill-Mudworks-108145139230652
• https://www.instagram.com/paul_haigh_pottery

Artist Melissa Belanger's desire to be contrary is rooted in her childhood. Her mother was supportive but didn't like candy, Halloween, and dolls, which Melissa adores. Melissa created all of her costumes. One of her most memorable was cardboard butterfly wings paired with a snowsuit. Halloweens were often cold in her Wisconsin hometown.

Melissa loved her time as a middle school art teacher. She pushed her students to explore as many mediums as possible and to focus on process over outcome. She was amazed by the skill of her students and how open their minds were. Before going full-time in art, she also worked in a bookstore and an art gallery.

Melissa is passionate about travel. She enjoys checking out places she's seen in movies or heard about in songs. In Ostend, Belgium, she checked out the resort from the 1971 European vampire classic, Daughters of Darkness. Watching tourists on the boardwalk reminded her of Edward Gorey's paintings. She's a fan of artist James Ensor (1860-1949), who painted carnivals, puppets, and masks. While in Belgium, she visited his apartment and his mother's curiosity shop. It was there she spotted her first Fiji mermaid.

Her parents bestowed upon her a love of history and literature. Both find their way into her paintings. The twisted stories of Elizabeth Bathory, Fox Sisters, witch hunts, and the Donner Party inspire her to create.

Melissa admits it is tricky to describe her paintings. They are so cute she almost wants to dislike them. Her paintings have playful colors and textures. Melissa enjoys playing around with different themes and eras and mashing them all together. Her characters often hint that they are about to do something naughty. An outfit, movie, or song will help her focus on a theme for an art show.

Melissa loves cocktails and to entertain. She intentionally sets up her art show booths as lounges to encourage people to hang out. One of her favorite drinks is a Corpse Reviver. Her husband, Joe, is a great booth assistant. He'll even wear short lederhosen to get into character.

Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts magazine has included Melissa's work in multiple issues. On episode 20 of HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast, she shared how to make a black cat bobblehead and a pumpkin pillow. Melissa shared the secret that several dolls played the part of the black cat. You can see the show at: https://watch.hgtv.com/tv-shows/crafters-coast-to-coast/full-episodes/bobbleheads-zombie-dolls-faux-tombstones-pumpkin-pillow.

Melissa wrapped up the interview with two of her favorite quotes:

"Remember, never take no cut-offs and hurry along as fast as you can" - Anna Khomina (Donner-Reed Party and the Winter of 1846)

"No matter what, expect the unexpected. And whenever possible BE the unexpected" - author Lynda Barry.

Visit Melissa’s website: http://www.melissabelanger.com

Avery Applegate is a jewelry artist who loves hunting for forgotten treasures with a dark twist. She mixes these findings into assemblage art jewelry. Avery explores nature, sidewalks, and thrift/antique shops to collect treasures such as photographs, vintage jewelry, bones, and typewriter keys.

Her original jewelry line, Just My Type Jewelry, features vintage typewriter keys. After attending the Ghoultide Gathering Halloween art show, she was inspired to add a darker, more serious line. She named it Mourning Glory Jewelry.

Avery taught art for three decades.

As a child, Avery’s mother needed to check Avery’s pockets before doing her laundry. Avery would bring home shells, bones, nightcrawlers, and more from her explorations of the small family farm. Avery’s mother nurtured her collecting habit. She taught her how to make a ring out of a bone, which Avery still has. Avery’s mother sparked her love of Halloween, reading her bedtime stories that spun-up her imagination.

She loved coloring in a book of Brothers Grimms tales. Avery was drawn to creepy and weird shows like the Addams Family, Dark Shadows, The Twilight Zone, and more.

Avery enjoys working on jewelry because it enables her to tell stories with all the small things she’s collected over the years. For example, an old belt buckle can become a frame for a photograph.

Avery shared her sources. When she is out in nature, she looks for things that call to her. She is often found hunting in thrift and antique shops. She got her job at Rusty’s Antiques because she shopped there so much. People will drop off things to her. Once she came home and found an old typewriter on her doorstep.

The rarest and most valuable items in her collection are pieces of Victorian mourning jewelry. Victorians would take hair from a deceased loved-one and have it made into jewelry.

The weirdest place Avery has ever searched for antiques was an old privy (outhouse). People used to throw trash down their privy like bottles and crocks. To clarify -all the nasty bits were fully decomposed by the time Avery dug around in them.

Abandoned houses call to Avery. She gets permission to explore them now after being arrested for entering one without permission back in her college days.

Avery connects with the people in old photographs. She is especially drawn to the eyes. She collects photographs, tin types, and daguerreotypes. She passes by a lot of pictures – she doesn’t connect to them all. She thinks the people from the past would be appalled to know their photographs are now being cut-up for art. Avery met Wes Cowan from the TV show, Antiques Roadshow. She was wearing a tin type she had made into a necklace. She asked Wes what he thought about it. He said old photographs should be kept out and enjoyed. Avery has a sense of humor about couples. If they don’t look happy, she has no issues using them in separate art pieces.

The first Halloween art show Avery attended was Ghoultide Gathering. As a diehard, she would get in line at 3:00 a.m. In 2016, she showed the organizer, Scott Smith, some of her work. The next year the show transitioned to Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween and Avery was invited to be a participating artist.

One of her favorite pieces is a hand-blown eyeball from a German doll. She set it in the center of a 1940’s circle pin. The collector who purchased it wore it on his black tuxedo.

The name Mourning Glory is a nod to Victorian mourning, which has always fascinated her. She likes the ritual of that period, but she’s thankful she lives in our time. Some Victorian death rituals are reemerging, like green burials, post-mortem photography, and family involvement.

Follow Avery on her Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/mourninggloryjewelry/. She also sells through Indigenous Craft in Cincinnati. She will also be a Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween artist this year.