Of Light and Death on the High Seas

The other week local Press Herald blogger extraordinaire Justin Ellis went on a brief hiatus to further his skills in the high-tech communications realm. Why am I telling you this? Because it was a great opportunity for him to launch some guest posters on his blog, and one of the ones invited to flex their Portland-based cultural writing muscles was me. It was a great excuse to talk about the non-traditional lighthouse art show that's showing at Sanctuary until the end of July. You can read the full post here.

However, the photos I took for the story didn't make it onto Justin's blog, so for those of you many miles away, I thought I'd share them here, as this is one of those art shows that only comes 'round once. So here is a taste of what awaits you! You can click on the images here to see larger versions.

Untitled by Loren Leahy (detail) brings the "Kaboom!" home.
You didn't need that yacht, did you? (detail)

Tim Clorius' Untitled draws the viewer into a stranger
world of light and dark than most lighthouses have seen. (detail)

Krivolshlyapova; Masha, Dasha, by Chris Dingwell (detail)
Not your average postcard image of a restful lighthouse scene.

A Ghoulish Word from Glenn

No Maine autumn would be complete without a word from Maine’s own spooky artist, Glenn Chadbourne. Here we bring you a selection from an interview with the fiend himself. I’ll post the interview on the website as I transcribe it, so keep your eyes peeled!

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As the month of August waned, I and intrepid Strange-Mainiac Stella Hell set out on a sunny day on our quest to visit Glenn in his well-appointed den of darkness. As we settled in to the Chadbourne house’s darkly furnished livingroom for our little chat, it seemed inevitable that the subject of cemeteries would come up.

SMG: In “The Hairy Tale of Lou Garoo” from your comic Farmer Fiend’s Horror Harvest, the characters talk about places that are “just off.” Are there any places like that you’ve encountered or heard of?

Glenn: There was a spot off the railroad tracks when we were kids here in Newcastle that was an old overgrown boneyard out there, a graveyard from way back when. There was an urban legend that one of the stones glowed. So when we were kids, around Cub Scout age, we’d creep out there, but no one would head for the stones or dare to go up and check them out, we were wimps.

According to the town of Newcastle’s Comprehensive Report (dated 2/6/06), “At least thirty-six cemeteries have been identified in Newcastle. Most are old and private with the oldest dating back to 1758.” The town today has a population of about two thousand living souls.

Newcastle isn’t the only place in New England where tales of a glowing tombstone have proliferated. A close neighbor of ours, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has one of its own which is well documented online and elsewhere (for instance, see http://nielsenhayden.com/ or read Curious New England: The Unconventional Traveler’s Guide to Eccentric Destinations by Joseph E. Citro and Diane E. Foulds).

At the time I interviewed him, Glenn was up to his neck in artwork for the much-anticipated second volume of Secretary of Dreams, a fully-illustrated collection of Stephen King stories published by Cemetery Dance. The work looks terrific. Glenn showed us the stack of black and white pages, as well as a handful of gorgeous full-color pieces that will be featured in it. The book officially went on sale the other day -- I placed my pre-order as soon as I got the e-mail notice! You can order your copy at Cemetery Dance.

Stay tuned for a contest here on the blog -- we'll be giving away a couple of copies of Glenn's album by Nick Noxious and the Necrophiliacs, courtesy of Morbideus of Maine's own Postmortem Productions.