Large Fierce Mammal

A motivational poster by Katy Towell. Click to enbiggen. (Source: http://skary.com/)

Katy Towell’s Childrin R Skary website describes its creator as, “… a graphic designer, writer and illustrator in Portland, OR with dreams of one day being the scary old lady in the house about which all the neighborhood children tell ghost stories.”

Katy Towell (Source: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2750251.Katy_Towell)

I don’t personally consider children to be skary, regardless of spelling, but then again, I’m a fine one to talk. None of that stops me from appreciating the divine work of the woman who is the subject of today’s Dark Sentiment.

Ms. Towell’s work speaks for itself in a style that is stripped down to the essentials without the risk of ever being labelled simplistic. If you have an imagination, a sense of humour, and an appreciation for Darkness, she will find you where you live.

Her animated short films include such characters as Death himself, an elephant killed by human cruelty whose ghost, while elevated beyond the pain, still bears the marks of the wounds it bore in life, an old Ash Tree that everyone is warned not to go near, and an assortment of dangerous, dead, and damned children that includes, among others, a girl who never woke up.

Today I will share with you three of Katy Towell’s films that have caught my eye. When you’re done, you’d be well advised to haunt her YouTube and Vimeo channels a while, and see what else she has to offer.

Katy Towell also pens “Spooky Novels for Brave Children“; most recently, Skary Children and the Carousel of Sorrow. The world needs more brave children, and those are most readily raised by brave parents. Here’s the trailer … yes, books have trailers now.

For your further delectation, here’s a sample reading of Chapter 3. I think I’ve been to that town several times.

I’m going to conclude with a delightful piece of Ms. Towell’s art work. As the saying goes, we were all young once, and this one’s titled “When Charon Was Small“.

Click to enlarge.