Inktober 2019

Southern Gothic Edition Day 10 Prompt - “Mountain Magic”

I think I need a little explanation on this one. My great-great grandmother was known for her ability to read tea leaves and the other items in the image are typical things you see for a set of “bones.” Throwing the bones was and still is a very popular way to divine the future among those of Appalachian descent and African American descent. Many immigrants that settled in Appalachia brought their ancient traditional ways with them to the New World. That mixture of the occult, spiritualism, and Christianity in the Appalachian mountains and the south in general has always fascinated me. This is probably my least successful drawing since day 1 , but I do like the story behind it.

(Dear art professors, art students, and creatives in general - how well I remember from weekly critique that if you have to explain your drawing and give a story to justify it that makes it by default a failed drawing. And to that I say, I graduated in 2005 and I’ll do what I want now. So there.)