Essay - from Terrowcow.com

Quite by accident Rick stumbled across the Art of Mike Bohatch.  It was a life-defining moment.

Let's get something straight.  I am not a well-versed individual in the realm of art that is based around painting and sculpture and such.  To be honest I think it was due mostly to the schools I went to, they were all Christian and most Christian schools are quite notorious for not allowing influences in that are contrary to their belief.

This setting was at war with how I was growing up my home.  My family, especially mother, are huge fans of true crime and horror and someone taking a tour through our bookshelves might often request we seek the help of professionals to cure our mental ails.  When other kids were reading about Bon Jovi or Heather Locklear or whoever was slathered across the cover of Teen I was reading about H.H. Holmes, Ed Gein and the Axeman of New Orleans.

So I have always had a predisposition toward all things horror and dark.  I am a big fan of horror movies.  I am an even bigger fan of horror movies that take simple realities and twist and distort them and present you with a skewed view of how the world around the characters is.  Event Horizon is a good example of this.  The Cell is another.  And some movies are scary simply because they are scary:  The Fog, Dark Night of the Scarecrow and Village of the Damned would fit this groove quite well.

I also like scary books or books that also distort reality.  I am a huge fan of non-fiction books dealing with the paranormal, ship disappearances and the unexplained.  I could tell you just about everything about Erebus and Terror, Mary Celeste and Joyita.  I could also talk all day about The Bermuda Triangle, The Devil's Sea and the other two-dozen or so hot spots across the world where stuff just vanishes without a trace.  And I could explain to you how, at the age of 18, I read my first horror story (Stephen King's The Langoliers) and it scared the piss out of me and how happy I was that the feeling was recreated when I read I Am Legend.

I, and for fear of sounding like a pansy, you know, I'm a big tough guy, have always had incredibly vivid nightmares involving things with more than two eyes and still to this day I am tormented with dreams about breaking bones, broken bones and all manner of bones that are not right.

I like things that are scary but I was seriously lacking in the art department.  Sure there was the reign of the surrealist but no one was able to make surreal into something that was both scary and surreal at the same time.  When it comes to art I know little, that is for sure, but I know what I like.

Although I was never much into the works of Salvador Dali a few of his paintings did strike a chord with me and opened my eyes to the concept that prehaps, one day, I might find art I like.

Visions of Hell was a great Dali painting.  The painting shown here Apparition of the Town of Delft is another good one too.  It sets the foundation for what makes good visual horror seeing how horror is most effective on a visual medium.  The basis of visual horror being to take things you are used to, the things you see everyday, and twist it in such a manner that you are struck by how all the things you usually find mundane are out of place.  The things that are out of place now come to you in a different way then they did before.

Dali built on the surreal, he was a surrealist after all, and although he touched on the building blocks of horror it was not what he aspired to do.  He didn't see things as scary - he saw them more as just being out of place with nary a hint of things scary to be found.

Of course, when we look at the paintings of Salvador Dali we can be secure in the knowledge that art and the appreciation of it have progressed from the days when artists could be punished or shunned if they created things that were against the norm.  That fact is blatantly apparent when we realize that both Dali and Picasso were of Spanish origin and Spain was once a place that was a great and terrible punisher of those who dared to deviate from the norm and allow creativity to show through.

Picasso, in some weird ways, was considered to also be a trendsetter in the realm of Dark Art.  His painting Guernica was embraced by many as the showcase of the horrors of war although Picasso himself often didn't delve into such descriptions and often didn't have much to say about it when people asked him.  One of the shining aspects of Guernica was again it used fundamental bases of horror; taking what is mundane and expected and obscuring it.  Take for instance the placement of the eyes of the people and creatures who populate the painting.

So I figured that although there was good surreal art that my appreciation would be lost.  My mindset is one that my input needs to have an element of unease and not just the out of place.

I found it.  I actually found it on accident.  There is a website called Eyes of Chaos that is home to a man named Mike Bohatch.  After years of searching I found what I was looking for.  Mike's work is powerful.

I have a shocked reaction that goes something along the lines of "Holy Shit!"  That is exactly how I went when I found the painting Night Terror.  It was the first piece of art that had an effect on me in a manner that I enjoyed.  Looking at the painting fulfilled all the needs I had when looking at art.

The success that Night Terror had in me was that is showed that beauty and horror could be conveyed in the same work.

One of the things that makes it work for me is the solitary eye.  It is not a happy eye or even a sad eye.  It brings you the questions "do you want to see what the eye is seeing?" or "do you want to feel what the eye is feeling?"

No, I don't. 

Night Terror is a magnificent venture into visual horror that sticks with you long after you have stopped looking at it. 

Night Terror happened to be the first work I looked at on the site.  I, with great reserve, clicked on another link to another work hoping that the I wouldn't be disappointed to find that this was the only viable work.

It wasn't.  Oh gosh no.

I went one by one through the works of art and my feelings for what I had seen had not ceased at all.

I would also like to note that I didn't choose and discard when coming up with works to include in this article.  I picked all the works at random, studied them to get an impression and went to work.

It should also be noted that I don't try to delve into deep interpretations in art.  When it comes to visual art I am not that smart.  I simply point out what works and go with it.

Dispensable Technologies is another great piece that completely sets itself apart from the content found in Night Terror.  Where Night Terror shot out tendrils of dread right off the bad Dispensable Technologies snares you when you take a look around at everything that composes the piece.

Note the absence of people and the dominance of technology even though the technology itself is aged.  And notice the touches of red on the floor and walls.  Again more questions.  More basic questions.  What was there?  What happened? And again, do you really want to know?

Horror is best as a visual medium but unlike other visual medium horror can become even more effective when you are left to question not what you see, but what you don't see.

Carnivore definitely works when you put the "see less" idea to work.  It also mixes something you are used to seeing, a person, with something that doesn't fit in the mix, the construction of the lower half of the face and the shoulder.

Again, notice the eye as well.  Unlike Night Terror the feelings emoted by this one eye are quite different.  Where Night Terror indicated torment here we have calm and focus and malevolence, often not a pleasant combination.

I find myself especially attached to this work as well, there is just something about it that makes it really outstanding.  I can't point out a singular thing that makes it outstanding only the feeling that there are more things that make it so then I can realize right now.  And I don't mean that in a bad way, simply that I think there is more at work here then I can see and understand.

The bad thing about seeing all this work is I only wish I had found out about it years before.

Moving on to Nightshade.

Nightshade is another work that fits real nice with me.  It also puts together contrasting colors in a complimentary and vivid way, a task not easily accomplished in capable hands much less not easily accomplished in less capable hands.

Nightshade also takes place in an entirely different visual realm then the previous works.  The construction of the background is unique and fitting to this work and only serves to emphasize the images in the forground.

One of the mental concepts at play with this work is that you are safe in the knowledge that you only have to see it and not experiance what it does and what it is capable of and knowing that all you need to do is see it is enough of an experiance.  If you had to go further and get closer you might not come back the same.

Nightshade also embraces the fact that you can see all of it and what you can see is troubling.  There is nothing hidden or obfuscated and the fact that it is all there for you to see emphasizes the power of this work.  Unlike Carnivore there is nothing to leave to the imagination.  The uneasiness comes straight out of what is presented right up front.

Lastly I will touch on Playthings of the Damned.  I appreciate this one a great deal mostly because I find dolls to be creepy things.

Another effective portion of the work is the title - Playthings of the Damned - descriptive, short and effective stating its purpose directly and leaving nothing for interpretation.  Aside from the excessively creepy doll lies the solitary hand seeming to reach for it and what appears to be a portion of a face in the background that helps add a surreal and unnerving touch.

As you can see, my writings here are right up front.  Like I said before I am not a smart guy when it comes to art and the concepts of looking for a deeper meaning within visual art are often lost on me.

I do know this.  I like what I see because it affects me and I have always been admant in the belief that things are better for you in mind and soul when they affect you and not necessarily when you can relate to them.  Relation requires commonality and I hope I don't limit myself with things I find commons in.  I would rather go along like I have been, finding what touches me and being happy I found it.

The works of Mike Bohatch do that very thing.  In the realm of visual horror the man has rare talent.  Pay a visit to his site and check out all the creepy goodies he has to offer.  If you are someone who can appreciate the realm of horror you will be happy you did.

Eyes of Chaos creations used with permission of Mike Bohatch.