Donald Diddams
The Art of Digital Art
For the Ghouls and Goblins
Green Ghoul -- 2009
A creature was lying on the beach, dead and half covered with sand and dried seagrass. I tried to breathe some life into him and he opened his eyes and looked at me sadly. Or was that just a dream?
A bit further on was the shell of a sailboat — someone’s home — that had blown ashore. Holed by the coral stone at the water’s edge, its bones had been picked clean by human vultures in search of anything of value. As the waves washed over it’s keel, I shuddered with the old boater’s fear in the night of losing one’s bearings, or of the anchor losing its grip on the bottom, and being shipwrecked on a reef or a rocky shore. Here was proof that it happens.
Blown Ashore - 2009
Donald Diddams 
That top shot is so powerful. It looks like seal pleading for help with it’s eyes.
Thanks razzbuffnik! It is powerful, almost accusing the more I look at it.
Whew Don. These two are not exactly Twinkies and Mary Poppins.
If I spend too much time thinking about Razzs’ allusion of baby seals, I’ll get very upset.
I choose instead to believe that you’ve prepped Karla for Halloween and she was your muse.
That shipwrecked boat looks as though it’s about to get sucked up and under, yet again.
You may know, I’m so very much not a boat person.
Not to worry, Bonnie, I haven’t taken a permanent turn to the macabre. However, it is Halloween, the season where we try to make fun of our deepest fears. I posted these as a bit of counterpoint, giving those feelings some of the respect they are due. So the Green Ghoul really was a dead sea creature washed up on shore. Although not a baby seal, the point is much the same.
I scared of that top one…no likee cuz of that. The ship wrecks or wrecks of ships would be my obsession if I lived in St. Croix, sort of like my Queen Anne stems and blossoms are for me now in the northeast. Season after season, storm after storm, the wrecks would call me.
That top one isn’t exactly the kind of art you’d want to hang in your bedroom, is it, Pat? I’ll do something nice next time… Shipwrecks and ruined buildings are a whole genre unto themselves. I think there are even people who specialize in peeling paint (plenty of that here!). Thanks for your comment!
the paintings are exquisite, and so is the writing. (top)i have come upon such creatures along the shore, i know what that feels like and you have said it in such a gentle way(below) the horizon is close to the top and even though the boat is rocking between a previous ‘life’ and a fateful mishap, it feels grounded
somehow and though it lies still, there is something like a wake in the foreground that is a beautiful swish and swirl of water and seafoam
Very nice words to go with the images Edgar Allan Diddams.
tipota, thanks so much!. And how else could one be but gentle, with such a creature on the shore… The sea has amazing powers in so many ways.
Thank you, planetross! You must have known my great grandfather’s name was Edgar!
Wow, these are very powerful. And that green creature is incredibly creepy. I don’t think I can look at it again. And now I’m going to have nightmares; thanks a lot! 😉
Sorry for the nightmares, Jala, but thanks for the comment! I think its the soft eyes that make that green thing so creepy.