Playing on lightning-struck wood, these pieces each house a spirit that is neither full human dead nor full nature/tree spirit, but rather a chimaeric combination of both with little heaps and piles and twists of other influences and forces binding them and flying out and around them and from them. Each plays with a certain amount of authority over strange dead (human, animal, insect - or a combination of all, like them themselves) that find refuge in the night-woods, a fire of bones beneath a sparked and smoldering tree.

They play in a bit to some of what is in motion in The Buzzing Oil (as they each have some within their charge, in addition to Dark Heart of the Master to reinforce their control and command of the dead - and more writhing beasts), so - whispers and rumors, the holding and prodding of tongues, from gossip and slander to far darker things, the enlivening of mixed bones and spirit scraps, advisors, Generals for those that may be pulled under them - and as such, the potential for an army - for defense and attack, for various sorceries and instructions in the same, for spying and divination… they are versatile spirits within their realm.

The tie to lightening struck trees is emphasized in the design, which seeks to reflect the melding of a corpse with a dead tree burning and scorched with an inner fire. The sculptures themselves incorporate sticks and bark all blackened and fallen from lightening struck trees, while the paint is mixed and dusted with powdered and crumbled ash and char from a dead tree that, after being struck by lightening in a cemetery, fell and burned almost entirely, decimating many graves and uprooting their headstones.

Their charges, while all slightly different, are generally comprised of: char bits and dirts from several lightning struck trees found in cemeteries, with one covered in sap that attracted swarms of flies, wasps, and was stuck with cicada shells; toad lips; a variety of insects and bird pieces, wolverine teeth, male human skull bone and teeth, bat, datura seeds, flies, Buzzing Oil, Dark Heart of the Master Oil, a private unreleased oil prepared from one of our most prized powders that will remain undisclosed and not discussed, human ashes, and a variety of herbs, woods, dirts and powders and many further ingredients that will remain bound by the silence of the fetish and its maker.

Lightning-Struck Tree Corpse No. 1 plays off of cancerous growths upon trees, and displays a gall beneath its ribs. This piece was adapted at the request of a potential client with a small attached charm bundle, intended to focus this spirit more to the aggressive side, guided by the voice of the lonely cannibal in the woods- bringing it very close in sympathy to Tree Corpse No. 3 while still drawing upon gall and malignant growth. It stands at nearly 14”.

Lightning-Struck Tree Corpse No. 2 (SOLD) plays upon rust and coffin wood, and stands at 14”.

Lightning-Struck Tree Corpse No. 3 (SOLD) plays upon more aggressive sides of the forest spirits and the dead tied to them, and contains a variety of extra powders, and a coyote tooth from a specific spirit’s pot instead of a human tooth. It stands at nearly 13’.

All were finished within a rotten stump whose innards are a hole that runs deep into the ground. As ever, more information on them will be shared with their new owner.