Unsettling Artwork

I collect "creepy"; things I find that fit that bill are displayed, consumed, or in the case of the internet, added to the bookmarks file. I'm also a goon over on the Something Awful forums (try to contain your shock), and there is frequent fodder for the Creepy Collective that passes through the forums over there. One such item is the link to a website: The Artwork of Keith Thompson.

This guy is amazingly talented, and comes up with often frightening little snippets of story to go along with the artistic children he gives birth to. Some of his stuff is commission work for productions like Borderlands, gaming books/sites, etc, but for my nonexistent money, the best is his original stuff. He does everything from landscapes to characters to robots and the undead, and it's always unsettling. Go into his gallery, and have a look around, you won't regret it. But a word of warning: be prepared to lose a good hour or so of time exploring. For me his artwork causes lost time. Either that or it's whatever's been rustling in my closet, eating my shoelaces.


Here's one of my favorites; I plan to get a print of this when my finances permit:


"SCRIBE: A scrivener automaton working in a rather wealthy merchant's library. The arcane procedures for creating automatons are as varied as their appearance and roles in society (servitors, military, labour, prostitution, etc). The taxidermic use of cured human remains is legalized, economical and common place in their construction (similar to how the powdered wigs in our past often used the hair of corpses). However the practice of "rendering" down living persons into an automaton state is outlawed, it is frequently employed since the resultant product tends to outperform the legal alternative. The merchant who owns this particular scribe automaton has some very extensive paperwork detailing her conformity to all applicable regulation. Despite this assurance, those who deal with her have noticed how quickly she learns new tasks, and have caught her smiling when backs are turned."