A Review of ShadowMyths' The Gallery of Nightmares

I spent a day wandering about the woods at Fort Ben State Park in Indianapolis, perusing a magnificent collection of painting and parable on Doug Hoppes’ ShadowMyths website.

I read through The Gallery of Nightmares on my smartphone—dissecting it piece by piece, one might say!—like Ichabod Crane bumbling into Sleepy Hollow with his prodigious nose in a book, occasionally stopping to rest and savor a particularly riveting painting or aphorism.

Amidst the enlivening scent of freshly blooming flowers and the rustling bustle of newborn woodland creatures—I saw an oh-so-tiny baby squirrel scurry out and back into the brush!—I pored over paintings of creepy things paradoxically but perfectly complimented by axiomatic wisdom reminiscent of sages the likes of Lao Tsu.

Here's a gem from the Portrait Wing which accompanied the painting Forged:

“We're forged in fire and tempered by love.”

As I sat atop the foundation of an old ruin overgrown with weeds and saplings, I heard two owls calling back and forth, closing their distance by tracking each other’s cries. Suddenly, I heard one call right above my head and looked up in time to see it fly away to meet its mate!

I laughed out loud.

I met Doug at the Indy Oddities Expo, where I bought a print of the painting below, Lacking Wisdom, which exemplifies the old saw: just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Doug's take:

"Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. We like to think we are more intelligent than we are, but our decisions are often based on those we trust. This leads us to a falsehood where our beliefs are the masses’ beliefs, not our own. Remember that the masses are not always correct, but more importantly, they are not always wrong. Like the owl on the skull, false wisdom can lead to the death of your true self. Learn to see what is true, not what others say."

These little moments of synchronicity no longer surprise me but nevertheless add color to my life as a little extra spice might embolden an already delicious dish.

I was equally pleased to note many points of resonance between my own thoughts and that of the fellow philosopher and horror hound with whose work I spent a spring afternoon.

I highly recommend Doug’s work. His flare for matching words with images is superb, but moreover, his Gallery of Nightmares fondly recalls the covers of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, as well as the classic tales therein, which remain a delight to all ages, while also having an edge that transcends such charming child’s play.

Anyone could benefit from visiting The Gallery of Nightmares, opening to any page randomly, or reading it from beginning to end as I did.

There were meanings hidden within meanings and images hidden within images. There were life lessons which, if you don’t already know, are worth thinking about, the better to avoid a pitfall or seize an opportunity you might otherwise miss.

I ordered a couple more prints that really struck a chord, and a softcover copy of his latest short story collection The Gallery of Nightmares: Lost. I also hope to interview him soon for Horror to Culture and get more insight into a mind so well-disposed to think outside the box—perhaps even the coffin!

This brings me to another excellent point about Doug’s work: despite its philosophical nature, it doesn’t ply us with platitudes. It encourages us to embrace the shadow, but also to step out of the darkness and into the light.

This balance of perspectives is something I deeply appreciate.

I often say: Death is no end to Life.

In Doug’s work I find the positive and rewarding side of my own love of decay, which is to say, that I neither fear nor welcome death, but accept it as a phase which ushers life into new horizons.

One of the prints I bought was called Guardian.

Being a father, and having promised my own dearly departed pop that I would pay his good grace forward, I leave you with these lines which accompany the painting above, as they really spoke to me, and I hope they will to you as well:

“The world will beat us down and not care about us one bit. No one is strong enough to withstand this, and we need someone on our side to help. When we are young, it’s usually our parents and family. As we grow older, it’s friends or family. These are our guardians. Their role is to help us get through life and enjoy it. As time moves on, we become the guardians of others.”

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