Trocaria is a haunted world, draped in a pall of perpetual night. It is a veritable factory of nightmares, the progenitor of every bad dream ever to plague humankind. It is inhabited only by the restless spirits of the enslaved dead and the Nis, the undead Shadow-Priests who hold dominion over them.

The Queen of Halloween, She Whose Promise is Oblivion, surveys her kingdom beneath its bloated, ever-present moon; her ghastly mask serving as a conduit for the spectral energy that must sustain her. She breathes deeply. Along the Plutonian shores of an oily sea we spy a procession of her devoted disciples, desperate and twisted shades known as Beggar-Kind. These nomadic wraiths seek an audience with their beloved queen; hoping, if for only the briefest of moments, that they may bask in the dark glory of her benediction…and her “gift” of spiritual annihilation.

This work inspired me to begin a new series of drawings devoted to a world of my own making called Trocaria. The Queen of Halloween, blind yet possessed of powerful psychic vision, wears a ceremonial headpiece which has been magically implanted by the Nis. This sentient mask is composed of the faces of the ancient dead, whose eyes must now serve as her own, stitched together with gossamer thread and necromancy.

The original drawing sold to a private collector in July, 2011.

Charcoal on paper, 2011