Nearly forgotten but glorious art, envisionings and historical oddments from the back corners of the internet
Shimmering on air on the smile of a javelina as an eagle soars over the Sierra Madre where Oaxaca meets the sun . . . first a whimper and then a rustle . . . a taffeta petticoat it must be and part of the costume of a little girl helping to lead the village Día de los Muertos parade past a sea of marigolds . . . down the street and off to the cemetery with a mariachi band playing away and another one in the back behind a cart heaped with who knows how many baker’s dozens of sugar skull cookies and offering breads . . .
a special post that I started adding a few years ago though the captioning up for it I wrote up this week. Previously, these images were scattered in the fall series but I like it better this way. With 28=30 images that’s enough for its’ own post, too.
https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/a-special-post-for-dia-de-los-muertos
Cemetery photographed during Dia de los Muertos, Oaxaca, Mexico. Image ca. 2026. Photo credit and copyright No Maps or Foot Tracks.com.
Soaring in the air, as on a highland Scots island somewhere between the Arctic and the sky, the ravens begin to caw in the ancient graveyard . . . one on each shoulder of the angel by the entrance and ten atop the gate . . . where to now . . . for the stars to tell . . . another few days and Samhain . . . then they’ll know.
my series post for today published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to see it.
https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/very-eerie-halloween-art-for-samhain
Satan Watching the Sleep of Christ. (detail) ca.1874. Scots. Joseph Noel Paton, painter (1821-1901). Collection of the Kirkcaldy Galleries. via artuk.org.
swishing on air on the last knot of a Persian carpet as the weaver smiles as somewhere far beyond where the southernmost sea blows wild and free the ice starts to move . . . a huge penguin perhaps . . . the widow of the last man alive come back to find him . . . or maybe a polar bear from far away that hopped a ride on the wrong ice floe . . . impossible to know . . . but plumes of something that rise into the air and a spectral sounding kind of splash . . . life’s a mystery . . . maybe your grandbaby will learn of it in her schoolbook . . . maybe not
my series post for today published to my Substack at the link. The pumpkins in the thumbnail are from Parlee Farms in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts.
https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/very-eerie-pre-halloween-art-for-1a4
slipping on air as from the depths of a Denali crevasse a moan rises as the scientist begins lowering his instruments down . . . someone fallen down it and the charts saying at least another twenty years . . . but no . . . turned into a wraith and tired of being poked . . . another spot would have been better but too late now . . . get ready . . . happening now . . .
my series post for today published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to see it. Thanks!
https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/very-eerie-pre-halloween-art-for-176
Ideas for children’s costumes for a Halloween party, taken from Dennison’s 1921 Bogie Collection. via @dennisonarchivist on Instagram. via Instagram.
sparking on air as in somewhere in rural Europe a broomstick rises into the air . . . an old coven it was that met by the stone circle where the land meets the sky . . . or so said grandmother and she was always right . . . troubled they must be or else they would not rise . . . something brewing somewhere . . . but no . . . the broomstick turned and sweeping away . . . . first to the left and then ahead . . . time to run but here comes another . . .
my series post for today published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to see it. Thanks! https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/very-eerie-pre-halloween-art-for-56b
Sphinxes who guard the entrance to the Elizabeth Street Garden in New York City. Image ca. 2025. Photographer not given but under copyright. @elizabethstreetgarden on Instagram. via Instagram.
sparking on air on the last whine of a werewolf’s screech as the winds pick up and the old cries begin to rise . . . people not listening to the new gods and the ancient ones starting to inch back . . . swirls of sand and dust with the outline of something or someone in silvery robes, a thing that looks like a spear merged with a Victorian pickle fork and a golden crown that sparks off the stars up in the heavens . . . the lord of the mountains and the moon making his return . . . lightning bolts bouncing off up into the clouds and then down making the earth where they hit bounce . . . be careful . . . very careful
my series post for today published to my Substack at the link. https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/very-eerie-pre-halloween-art-for-8bf
Winslow family mausoleum, Bellevue Cemetery, Lawrence, Massachusetts USA. Byzantine Revival so built in the mid 1920s. American. 2022 image via sipseyheadstonecleaning on Instagram. via Instagram.
What do you think is the future of AI? I hope nothing. I am admin of a Facebook history page that is social history and photograph based, mostly. I am spending increased amounts of time doing my best to weed out any with AI images, using mostly images from trusted sources/official archives that I have been accessing for over 10 years. In terms of writing, I have a substack and write elsewhere and like the other am doing my best to weed AI out whenever I think I’ve found it. In terms of digital art, there have been various trends before that blew over and I’m hoping AI is one of them.
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sky a buzzing and then a spark . . . bees it is but of a different kind . . . rising in a ball to blot out the sun and then starting to grow . . . sideways in an endlessly circling ribbon and then beginning to tilt as they head out towards the land . . . tips of their wings shooting off things that look like sparklers stuck in a baked alaska but not of the celebratory kind . . . just what they are for even the bees cannot say . . . oh no . . . a ship sunk with a shock from one . . . time to hide . . . the cave down on the beach . . . a climb down the cliff and into the water . . .just needing the tide a little up . . . that would work
my series post for today published to my Substack if you’d to see the rest. Thank you!
https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/very-eerie-pre-halloween-art-for-2f6
hissing on air as in the inner depths of an archeological dig far from anywhere the golden serpents in their nest amongst the dead king’s burial goods wiggle their way out, flashing their emerald eyes and gnashing their diamonded up fangs . . . the assistant with his trowel and then the head man with his charts and maps . . . no . . . the archeologist’s girlfriend surrounded and entwined and gone in a golden mist . . . the volcano at the other end of the island next . . . an eruption to cause . . . that’ll enliven up the afternoon . . .
My series post for today published to my Substack at the link if you’d like to see it. https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/very-eerie-pre-halloween-art-for-4ea
Dennison Hallowe’en Jack-o-Lanterns seals. 1920s. American. Dennison Manufacturing Company Archives. dennisonarchivist on Instagram. From their Instagram.