The Artwork of Douglas Walters

There are exceptions, but illustrations rarely transcend category. An illustration transcends category when it transports us and we experience “aesthetic bliss.” It is with this kind of art that I am chiefly concerned. The artwork of Douglas Walters emanates eerily from the pages of a book like the refractions of a midnight prism. His line drawings are imbued with a macabre exuberance, a mad lyricism, a phantasmal music that the eye seems to hear . . . that linger long after the book is closed. His beautiful nightmarish illustrations have graced the pages of All Hallows, Enigmatic Tales, Ghosts and Scholars, and have appeared in books published by Sarob Press, Ash-Tree Press and Calabash Press. He produces artwork at a magisterial level. In a commercialized market, where the collective work of genre illustrators has merged into one huge and magically unaffecting tapestry, the artistry of Douglas Walters stands out.