From the furthest reaches of the earth, to the friendlier corners of various otherworlds, elseworlds and sideworlds, come relics, artifacts, missives, artworks, monuments, and other curiousities we wish to share with choice members of the public sector - as a token of our appreciation, and to make reparations for those various unfortunate incidents of this past year, and to demonstrate the merits and benefits of having our well-meaning establishment located your wise and forgiving community, Arkham, our home.
Here you will find many curious and strange works, meant to inspire not fear, but wonder and awe, to the most well-educated, inquisitive, and scholarly of art lovers, historians, anthropologists, and supernaturalists. To the common man, these things might be seen as horrid if not horrifying, and we are only grateful for those who, like you, are wise and curious enough to appreciate these rare works.
That said, we hold ourselves irresponsible for what effects such splendor might have upon your mind and body, and trust that by your being here, you are learned and cautious enough to conduct your exploration safely - most importantly, not allowing yourself to touch or be touched by wonderous items in our splendid collection.
L’Oracle du Mort: One of many amazing clockwork pieces by Thomas Kuntz to be featured here in the Archive.
Thomas Kuntz, a professional artist for over 20 years, began as a sculptor of Commercial Toys, but later gained notoriety circa ‘89-98 as a pioneer in the making of model kits based on old silent films like Nosferatu, The Man Who Laughs, Vampira, and others.
After a period of time Kuntz found that merely sculpting his dark creations was not nearly enough for him, and that he wanted to give life to his creations through mechanical, perhaps supernatural means… This change in method resulted in some of the darkest and most interesting automations known to man, and not nearly as many fatalities and disappearances as may be rumored.
You may have seen Thomas’ twisted creations in many places, though you may not have been aware of the crafter behind them, or the astounding degrees of meticulous craftsmanship responsible for their being. Mr. Kuntz’ creations have served in the armies and arsenals of many noteworthy people, interesting types such as Kevin Ogilvie, a.k.a. Nivek Ogre, frontman of theatrical post-punk industrial band “Skinny Puppy”. Thomas has made mechanical props for the band, and for Nivek alone, with pieces for use on stage, and for use in video.
In his workshop, Thomas Kuntz controls an army of clockmaking lathes from 1880-present, and each piece he creates is more said to be more exquisite than the last. There are only a handful of builders in the world who make automata, and no one does it like Mr. Kuntz. (more…)
These films (found through the wonderful Emily Beighley) are shades of things to come for the coming Miskatonic Archive exhibit on Automata, featuring another (soon to be named) artist who, like the Amazingly Brilliant Keith Newstead, embodies the very spirit of steampunk ingenuity and craftsmanship.
Please enjoy the videos below, and if you would like to see more of Keith’s wondrous works, visit him at his aetherweb home Keith Newstead Automata - and be sure to check this space again next week, we have more amazing things to show!
Myke Amend has spent the last day moving his store into the Archive’s Reliquiary, as his store sometime this coming week, for an uncertain amount of time will have a bad fail infestation as he seeks to redesign and re-arrange his domain.
There are many, many new items here now, some even that he had forgotten to put in his regular store, some new exclusives to us.
There will also be many additions in the coming days by Bethalynne Bajema
Myke will also be putting up many many more originals here in the Archive over the next day or two as well, for those who like to collect original pieces - aside from what is already here, there will be a number of additional engravings of all sizes and themes, as well as some small scuptures and perhaps even some wood and brass works.
So, please do take a look, everything is one sale right now. I don’t think there is a thing in the store that has not been at least somewhat reduced. This week will be the very best time to acquire some original art, and a very good time to purchase prints and other merchandise as well.
“All in all, the experiment was a brilliant success, though it ran for a shorter time than desired.
The Resonator had to be shut down prematurely, else we might not have had enough crew to make it comfortably back to port. Over forty Russian tribesmen bravely gave their lives to science this day - a terrible tragedy as they will surely be expensive to replace.
Also lost was an entire crate of ether, carelessly dropped from the edge of a berg in the midst of today’s activities - a tragedy on so many levels.
Nevertheless, we saw many wondrous and splendid things this day: creatures and landscapes from the aether danced and swam about us through the air, and we saw the laws of our world temporarily suspended by those of the aether world.
It leaves me to wonder: How closely does the placement of their world correspond with ours? Are these same creatures to be found elsewhere on our planet, or would we perhaps find other inhabitants should the machine be tested in new locations?
What sorts of variants or unique beasts might we see in other locations such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Indonesia, London or perhaps even New York City?
Needless to say, I am beyond eager to see!”
- Professor Aden M. Kemy, Miskatonic Archivist
This giclee, commemorating the event is available while supplies last, in three limited editions of 50: A giclee on Canvas, an archival pigment ink print on heavy metallic stock, and a fine-art rag paper print. All of which 24 inches by 24 inches - the size of the original painting by Myke Amend.
First available, is this limited edition giclee on canvas, printed in archival pigment inks on 200-year archival canvas, coated in a UV-protective and scratch-resistant coating, stretched and mounted for framing.
It comes with a watermarked hahnemuhle certificate of authenticity printed on fine art rag paper, with a matching and serial-numbered hologram on both the back of the giclee print and the certificate. All giclees are hand-signed and numbered in paint (see the signature on the image) and also signed, dated, and numbered in archival ink on the back of the mounted print.
Strange noises were heard coming from the ceiling beneath the attic space on the far east towers of the Archive. By the gentle prodding (and when we say gentle we mean rough and rudely, and when we say prodding we mean prodding mostly done with pointy sticks aimed firmly at her fanny) of her devoted interns, our good old lass Babel Jean Tea Hymn was convinced to investigate. Ms Tea Hymn was a bit skiddish at first, to blindly go into these dark and mostly unused areas of the Archive, but after a bit more gentle prodding (and by gentle we mean… oh you get the picture, we threw the fussy old bird right into that dark old room!) Ms Tea Hymn bravely weathered the spiderweb infested attic by candle light alone. Many bets were taken as to the outcome of this spur of the moment adventure, but much to the disappointment of the interns (all of whom are still a bit spiky where Tea Hymn is concerned after her year of rude and relentless memo tyranny the Archive staff suffered before some peace was had when it was rumored dead professor Mint T. Zolty introduced his living colleague to the joys of ectoplasm and getting busy with the dead) Ms Tea Hymn returned from the attic unharmed and holding the creative efforts of some nameless attic dweller at the Archive. A fine selection of art pieces reprinted on what looks to be antique book pages were found left about the attic. The interns and their pointy sticks dispersed and Tea Hymn has hung a few of the collage pieces in the hallway with a note on how to own the selected pieces. Please have a look and should any appeal to you, please stop by the Archive shop.
An earlier painting by Myke Amend, now available in printed form at 11×14 inches and printed edge to edge in high detail.
The Vineyard depicts a strange sort of harvest, or perhaps a strange means of conception, making for a very Lovecraftian strange-fiction themed image, brilliantly, vividly colored, yet oh so dark.
Printed in 200 years archival pigment ink, heavy metallic stock in order to best bring out the rich colors and contrast of this vibrant piece.
A UV-protective lustre finish also helps protect the print against moisture and scratches.
Print size (edge to edge) is 11 x 14 inches, and can be purchased at mykeamend.com, or at Beth and Myke’s Joint Etsy Account: Ettadiem
Recently done for Vernian Process - the original painting is 48×24 inches in acrylic on birch panel.
The details are tiny, with a lot of single-hair brush work done.
There are polar bears the size of dimes, swirls and twirls the size of pin-heads, needle-thin ropes and lines, and a ton of details and hidden images hidden within hidden images - made so that its owner can find many, many new things throughout the years. Icebergs and crashed pods create goggled figures, grim visages made of waves and of ice - this piece is fanciful and fantastical with strong and hidden undercurrents of dark and brooding.
20×10 Metallic prints, and 12 from each of the giclees on canvas (presale only), giclees on Rag Paper, and Large Metallic Prints are available in the store. Though all limited edition prints are hand-signed, and hand-embellish my signature on all canvas giclees, only #s I, II and 1-10 of these limited editions will be hand-embellished.
There was once a woman born Abigail Frost who thought she saw a very strange creature when she was just a child. This fateful event put her on a path that would slowly cause her to become more and more dedicated to the task of proving the reality of what she thought she saw. This task became an obsession and this obsession would finally be satisfied, only the reward for her driven pursuit was not exactly what she was looking for. Abigail was transformed into a creature known as a Taurean and her immortal name became the Magpie. In the mythology of the Taureans and Saturnines the Magpie became a well known figure. Her fabled bird room housed countless species of bird or rumored to exist. This was her passion for decades until a chance introduction to a book about Lovecraft’s old gods caused her to make a sudden and sharp turn. Her crush on the old thing named Cthulhu found strange changes taking place in the Magpie…
Of the many subjects that the eccentric shopkeep and researcher Etta Diem occupied her free time with, the topic of the Taureans and Saturnines fascinated her the most. If Etta was capable of falling prey to obsession these two entities would be that obsession. The suggestion of this is rather ironic, but only if you understand the nature of Taureans and Saturnines. Each of these titles is a quick identifier of a type of person who followed a certain course of action somewhere in their life and suffered the consequences. The most simple way to sum of these actions is to say the phrase curiosity killed the cat, although death is not the outcome in this case but rather a strange brand of unwanted immortality. (more…)
