These works featuring odd rubbery cartoon images mixed with darker undertones were sparked from many hospitalizations, various pain killers, listening to Scott Walker’s The Drift and waking up with a terrifying headache and a *vision* of these creatures on a cloud throwing up colorful chewy intestine like worm-string.

The Hunrgy Ghosts title is a reference to Japanese artwork and folklore, where two such creatures exist: the Gaki and the Jikininki. Gaki are the spirits of jealous or greedy people who, as punishment for their mortal vices, have been cursed with an insatiable hunger for a particular substance or object. Traditionally, this is something repugnant or humiliating, such as human corpses or feces, though in more recent legends, it may be virtually anything, no matter how bizarre.

Jikininki (man-eating ghosts) are the spirits of greedy, selfish or impious individuals who are cursed after death to seek out and eat human corpses. They do this at night, scavenging for newly dead bodies and food offerings left for the dead. They sometimes also loot the corpses they eat for valuables, which they use to bribe local officials to leave them in peace. Nevertheless, Jikininki lament their condition and hate their repugnant cravings for dead human flesh.

www.4ad.com/scottwalker
www.faculty.sxu.edu (Japanese Image Archive)