The collective noun for “ghosts” is a reunion of ghosts.

Isn’t that dreamy? It seemed so fitting for this painting.

I stumbled upon this idea while rummaging through my mom’s drawer of old family polaroid’s. I love pocketing a few every time I visit. I have a large cigar box full of photographs to pull as reference and inspiration now. These two photos in particular struck me:

I love the group posing, the color palette, and the scenery. I wanted to merge them- the group of women standing in front of cactus and the women at the cemetery. I had the idea to paint them as a ghost family reunited at their overgrown family plot, their spectral silhouettes appearing every sunset. I love the idea of nature taking over a gravesite, lost in overgrown foliage. I visited the most beautiful cemetery in Colma while in art school, and the entire vision behind this cemetery was to let nature take center stage. Instead of pulling out all the bushes and trees, graves were dug around them, creating a “secret garden” cemetery. I started this drawing very tidy and contained, but wanted the gravesite to be lush and wild with nature, like many decades had passed.

I used colored pencil for the texture and opacity in the background. I wanted my ghosts to be ethereal and light so I kept them in a moonlit wash of blue, and eventually sparkled them with stars. I wanted them to look beautifully out of place floating against warmth and life.

I don’t think of ghosts as sad, I imagine they linger because they want to ~

The Reunion

Fairy Realm

Invitation