Open now at the LITM bar and art gallery in Jersey City, and just in time for Halloween, "The Deep and Savage Road" by Brooklyn-based artist Katherine Ramos, takes us through a haunted story of curiosity and fascination with the occult that is, of course, an ill-fated adventure.
Consisting of several individual illustrations that frequently double as artifacts for Katherine’s story, she and her three protagonists innocently ask us to join their adventure and allow our own curiosity to lure us in. Like watching a horror movie, that is, through fingers covering our face, we join this journey knowing full well what the consequences will be, but persuaded by our innocent naivety that it’s just all in good fun; much like an Ouija board. Surely these “artifacts," are just trinkets, right? Not the sort of ingredients used for a witch’s brew or to open the hell mouth.
It is that we take this journey together, however, that gives us the courage to push forward. After all, it is the willingness to take a risk that leads towards reward, and the promise that those whom you have trusted to bring with you will never lead you astray; like Virgil accompanying Dante into the inferno. Will the suffering be worth it, or will it warp you into something sinister? Will your companions be enough to keep you safe? The inscription did, after all, read “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”
Through the use of inks and flat colors, Katherine is able to convey a desolate tale that evokes a true sense of nightmare. A flash of highlights on a face or a moment we wish we had never seen.
If you haven't yet, I strongly suggest you stop at LITM the next time you're on Newark Ave. in Jersey City, grab yourself a drink, and allow your curiosity to get the better of you.
Originally from San Diego, Katherine Ramos is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and artist. Her illustrations have appeared in Double X, The New Yorker, and io9 (and now on the IZ website! How exciting!).
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