Wedding Ritual #10: Ghray

 Ghray 

is a self-taught, freelance artist based in Santa Fe. They specialise in dark fantasy and 'creepy creatures'. Having cut their teeth on creature designs for the Children of the Beast RPG, Ghray made the decision to go it alone and is gathering an increasing following for their highly skilled and and imaginative work.

You can sometimes catch them delivering live-streamed drawings of mythological creatures on Instagram (to date including this amazing harpy and a yet-to-be-shared manticore). Ghray's work also features at the Santa Fe gallery, Keep Contemporary.

Here, they give us a deeply personal insight into their work dealing with subconscious fears and desires. This is Ghray's Wedding Ritual, in their own words:

Something Old

'The Joke'

"For a long time I've debated whether to even show this drawing to anyone but myself. I drew this when I was around fourteen and deep in the throws of a depressive disorder along with the onset of bulimia. Since a very young age I'd been fascinated by mental disorders and how they changed a person. That fascination extended to my own mental struggles and eventually became one of the main drives and passions behind my art. I have a deep love and appreciation for concept art, creature design and storytelling - but at my core has always been the desire to bring light to a growing problem in our world that so many today suffer from silently: mental illness and the introspection needed to treat it."

Something New

The 'Flux' Series

'SpiralDown'

'Vanity'

'Do Unto Others'

"These were a series of drawings in which I wanted to explore my subconscious, along with the disorders that tag along with it. This was a way to put flesh (so to speak) on something immaterial; to give a form or an entity to the mental traps, patterns and subconscious actions I've found myself and others performing. I hope to continue to create out of these hidden places and hopefully build a career out of bringing more awareness to these aspects of the mind - that are so sadly overlooked and often misunderstood."

Something Borrowed

"Now this one... there's something about the knowledge that no one else in the world will know exactly what a certain thing means to you. I know so many people that think very opinionated things about Coldplay, very unflattering things might I add, but to me their two albums Rush of Blood to the Head and X&Y are pieces of art that are so ingrained in my very being that I can't even have an opinion on the quality of the work. When you grow up surrounded by a certain thing that at the time held so much importance and is shaped so many memories - now fading with age but the essence is still there - you know those things will be the most beautiful instances in your life. This song, in my mind, has always been a mirror to my inner self. Funnily enough I've never looked into what the lyrics meant but that's not the point of it all, is it? It's what I heard, what I felt, what I saw when I listened - that's what makes this song something I'll hold with me until the day I die.

"I've always believed if you listen to someone's music, not just the favorite songs that they find catchy but the music they listen to alone, that moves them and stays with them, then you'll get close to seeing their truest selves."

Something Blue

'Discipline'

"This was a drawing done while attending a workshop from Kevin Llewellyn in LA about a year back. That was one crazy night..."

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To support Ghray's work (including colour work!) and causes, check their Linktree, not least the online shop 'Dark Art Curio' where you can buy prints and original work; and to keep up to date just look for 'pragmatic insanity' in pretty much any social media domain you can think of.

As with all featured artists on Wedding Ritual, the copyright for the material shared here remains in the hands of the artist and appears with their permission, and in the event of any of the work featured being stolen we will support efforts to prosecute the perpetrator. So don't do it.

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More Rituals will be performed by more artists soon. If you know of someone you think should feature in a Wedding Ritual, tell them to get in touch. Meanwhile, don't forget to subscribe for future updates.