Dark Imbolc 2 Galway City, 2024

I've read a 1912 compendium of criminal case studies featuring peasant girls and women from all corners of former Russian Empire as perpetrators, and I couldn't shake the thought of all those 16, 17, 18 year olds driven to killing themselves, their unwanted children, their husbands two or three times them older who were essentially r*ping them for years. Hence the little mermaid - a Slavic edition (in Slavic folklore, mermaids are a type of the undead). All violence starts with domestic and gender-based violence. Russia is a terrorist state and always has been. Down with empires.

Another current WIP - The Forest Nobles 🌿🌀

A sketch of a nearby barrow. There is a children’s graveyard associated with it (the small stones you see); since stillborn or unbaptized children could not be buried on hallowed ground, in a proper cemetery, people in Ireland in 18-19 centuries buried their stillborn and unbaptized babies themselves. Such improvised unofficial graveyards were normally located in church ruins, on ring forts or on barrows, that is, in spaces that were vernacularly considered sacred / liminal.

This one has a very peaceful vibe in life. I like to think that whoever lies there looks after these children ‘entrusted’ to them.

A character from the dark fantasy book I’m writing. Spoiler alert: sapphic romance incoming

A long overdue request from my Telegram channel - a technofantasy steampunk knight in his tent after a tournament. These are definitely the droids he was looking for.

Killora graveyard & church, Co. Galway, Ireland

I often feel overwhelmed by Late Medieval - Early Modern finds in Irish and Scandinavian museums, much more so than by known human sacrifices, etc. All those knitted caps, mittens, warm cloaks - just regular garments of some person who was walking somewhere from somewhere and reasonably hoped to get there. Just can't shake the thought of some part of them still out there; still walking.

Inktober days 10 and 11 - ‘Nomadic’ and ‘Snacks’

Despair

Co. Galway, October 2023