Halloween Artist Trading Cards

ATCs by Phillip Hoyle 2017

The past five years I have been hanging out with artists who have a visual interest in the dark side that I don’t share. Of course, I’ve been around long enough to have my own dark times: the taste of depression, grief over deaths of relatives and loved ones, the end of a fine marriage, leaving a rewarding career, and continuing concerns over the wellbeing of ex-wife, kids, and grandkids. I’ve been with many other people through their losses.

But I don’t like the horrors of Halloween, haunted houses, scare stories, and things that go BOO in dark places. Something in my body says NO to these images that thrill others. I am rather Pollyanna-ish but still I know life is more than the bright side of things.

Eclipse Spider ATCs by Phillip Hoyle 2017

My Artist Trading Cards for this October did involve a lot of dark images—the lunar eclipse, many black widow spiders, even white spiders on black backgrounds. I combined these spiders with some Day of the Dead skulls but avoided the walking dead, bloody fangs, and other such dark images.

Ghosts in my library ATC by Phillip Hoyle 2017

Oh, I do realize the power of the dark but choose to walk on the sunny side of the street in full knowledge that the sun is present only one half of the time. I accept the balance but still I would rather laugh and play within the full sun of loving relationships. In my teenage associations with Native Americans I learned to dance in full daylight to celebrate the eternal mysteries and the beauty of costumed movement. I’ve learned also to dance in the dark to seek a certain kind of mystical intimacy with a partner, to hide certain aspects of communication that seem too precious for open view. But even then I want a candle shining in the dark like a beacon of love, life and, of course, laughter. I like to giggle in the dark.

Laughter—light or manic or simply jolly—leads me to worship Luna as well as Helios, but the cult I most pursue is that of Apollo. Welcome to my sun on this dark eve.

©30 October 2017