Baku - The Monster That Eats Dreams


"Baku (獏 or 貘) is the name of a fantastic beast in Japanese folklore, originally from China. It is usually depicted as a squat, trunked creature, vaguely resembling the tapir with which it shares its name in Japanese. It is often described in chimeric terms. Today the most common description gives it the body of a bear, the legs of a tiger, the nose of an elephant, the tail of an ox, and the eyes of a rhinoceros, but other descriptions exist, such as one from ancient China pegging it as a goat-like animal with nine tails, four ears, and eyes on its back." - quote from here.

These are a few examples of the monster that eats dreams. The top stitched interpretation was found here. The origin of the second one is lost to me at the moment but I believe it is from the 18th century. Click here to see another version of a Baku. And don't miss the one posted at Wikipedia.

Xia Xiaowan

The work of this Chinese artist are some of the most incredible I've ever seen. His unique technique of using special pencils on over a dozen sheets of tinted glass panels layered together creates a very bizarre sculptural image. Coincidentally I've thought about trying this for several years except with oil paints. It's very interesting to see that someone else has tried this out and the amazing results that it creates. And I'm more excited than ever to try this technique out myself. To view more of his works visit his gallery pages here and here.

And here is a view of these works on display where you can get a better idea how they look from the side, amazing. They look like aquariums with things floating inside. Image taken from here.

Alice In Wonderland
There are over 20 illustrations from Alice In Wonderland by artist Khodozhnik S. Goloshchapov on display in this gallery. I've seen strange interpretations of the Alice tale but these have to be some of the weirdest.

Below is another Alice In Wonderland illustration I found on this page. And as pointed out thanks to Paul Rumsey, this is actually an illustration by Lewis Carroll.





















And on the topic of artwork inspired by Alice In Wonderland, don't miss this great post from Hugo Strikes Back!

Suehiro Maruo / Kazuichi Hanawa



I recently discovered thanks to "Same Hat! Same Hat!!" a collection of prints by Suehiro Maruo and Kazuichi Hanawa titled "28 Famous Scenes of Murder and Verse" are available to download thanks to Huge Strikes Back. The file is 86. 7 MB, get it while it's still available.

Charles Frédéric Soehnée
The most recent post over at Giornale Nuovo concerns some very disturbing watercolor paintings of fantastic beasts such as this giant rat elephant dog hybrid seen above.

Additional links to more of these incredibly weird paintings can be found here here and here.

Many thanks to Giornale Nuovo for introducing me to such strange work!

JosÈ Guadalupe Posada - Temptations of St Anthony
One of my favorite works by Posada, a relief etching on zinc from 1910.

New Works By Brian McKenzie
Check out the amazing new prints Brian has been posting over at his blog. Don't miss the "Army of Demons" print a few posts down.

Joseph Goupy
Servatur Exemplar in dedibus - etching from the 18th century.