Deep in the forest there’s a skeleton tree, whispered the man in the dark. Find it and bring a rib back to me, and bring me three bones from its bark.
Then I’ll give you the potion your maiden must drink and you’d better run boy, run like the wind. For you should know, there’s a Skeleton King, and he won’t rest till the stolen’s redeemed.
The Hazel Wood and its sequel, The Night Country, are stories I almost wish I could experience again for the first time. An exploration of the fairytale underworld, the tales follow Alice, a beleaguered, haunted teenager, as she lives a piece-meal life, constantly moving cross-country with her mom. The duo flees makeshift homes regularly, with bad luck always nipping at their heels.
Though Alice and her mom live modestly, Alice’s grandmother is world-renowned, the author of a sublimely notorious and equally hard-to-find compendium of fairy tales. After receiving word that the estranged grandmother has died, mother and daughter finally settle in NYC, sighing with relief that their bad luck is behind them. Finally, Alice has a chance at a normal life.
But then, Alice’s mom goes missing and all clues point to the grandmother’s mansion, and beyond - to the morbid world of her concocted fairytales, tales that are starting to materialize on the streets of NY.
The Hazel Wood is a gritty Brothers’ Grimm bumming a cigarette, a jaded teenager stuck on the dark side of a NYC daydream, a haunted subway ride. It’s the stuff of nightmares but more gruesome and modern than Grimm. Imbued with young adult emo, it is also surprisingly poetic - much like our teenage years.
The Night Country follows in its footsteps, imagining a world that would make Mary Shelly shiver. Albert’s world is a fanatical escape for these dark times if you want to get away and indulge simultaneously. And for those hungry for more of Albert’s macabre marvels, the actual book of grandmother’s fairytales is slated to be released this winter. A book within a book. How apropos for a tale like this… Just take care you can separate story from reality. Fairytales are, after all, only make believe… aren’t they?
Thank you so much @sam.olivert for This magical illustration that you made dedicated to me!! It’s like if you see one of my dreams and make it real… is now one of my treasures. ♥
Working on this Snow Princess commission. If you are interested in a commission just sent me a private message <3 inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_-_GnB-1CE
When the Little Mermaid’s turn comes, she rises up to the surface, watches a birthday celebration being held on a ship in honor of a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a safe distance. Then a violent storm hits, sinking the ship, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here, the Little Mermaid waits until a young woman from the temple and her ladies in waiting find him. To her dismay, the prince never sees the Little Mermaid or even realizes that it was she who had originally saved his life.
The Little Mermaid becomes melancholy and asks her grandmother if humans can live forever. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than a mermaid’s 300 years but that they have an eternal soul that lives on in heaven, while mermaids turn to sea foam at death and cease to exist. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, visits the Sea Witch who lives in a dangerous part of the ocean. The witch willingly helps her by selling her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her beautiful voice, as the Little Mermaid has the most enchanting voice in the entire world. The witch warns the Little Mermaid that once she becomes a human, she will never be able to return to the sea. Consuming the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her body, yet when she recovers, she will have two human legs and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, she will constantly feel as if she is walking on sharp knives. In addition, she will obtain a soul only if she wins the love of the prince and marries him, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries someone else, the Little Mermaid will die with a broken heart and dissolve into sea foam upon the waves.
After she agrees to the arrangement, the Little Mermaid swims up to the surface near the prince’s castle and drinks the potion. The liquid feels like a sword piercing through her body and she passes out on the shore, naked. She is found by the prince, who is mesmerized by her beauty and grace, even though she is mute. Most of all, he likes to see her dance, and she dances for him despite suffering excruciating pain with every step. Soon, the Little Mermaid becomes the prince’s favorite companion and accompanies him on many of his outings but he does not fall in love with her at all. When the prince’s parents encouraged their son to marry the neighboring princess in an arranged marriage, the prince tells the Little Mermaid he will not because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, who he believes rescued him. It turns out that the princess from the neighboring kingdom was the temple woman, as she was sent to the temple for her education. The prince declares his love for her, and the royal wedding is announced at once.
The mermaid sisters give the knife to The Little Mermaid.
The prince and princess celebrate their new marriage aboard a wedding ship, and the Little Mermaid’s heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has sacrificed and of all the pain she has endured for the prince. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters rise out of the water and bring her a dagger that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long, beautiful hair. If the Little Mermaid kills the prince and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid once more, all her suffering will end, and she will live out her full life in the ocean with her family. However, the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his new wife, and she throws the dagger and herself off the ship into the water just as dawn breaks. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warm sun and discovers that she has turned into a luminous and ethereal earthbound spirit, a daughter of the air. As the Little Mermaid ascends into the atmosphere, she is greeted by other daughters, who tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to obtain an immortal soul. Because of her selflessness, she is given the chance to earn her own soul by doing good deeds for mankind for 300 years, and will one day rise up into Heaven.
Tattoo idea: a dagger with a blood swirling in water pattern at the tip of the blade, the blood weaving into the mermaids hair and the mermaid turning to sea foam
The tattoo design I commissioned turned out so well. No, you do not have permission to use this exact image for your tattoo, but you can use the concept
Have you ever been faced with two choices, neither of them what you truly want? This is the story of a girl, who finds herself in an unknown wood. A girl who dares to look for the choice not offered.
Wings, Thimble, Thorn is a short story, evocative of Hans Christen Andersen, with a touch of Grimm. The darkly whimsical illustrations complete the story and reveal truths of their own, instead of merely mirroring the text.
The story follows Oona, as she journeys through the Scraggle Wood, looking for a way to fulfill her heart’s desire.
I can’t say much more, you’ll have to discover the story for yourself. Dare you enter the Scraggle Wood?
I’ve always been reading fairy tales and stories, looking for the ones that really speak to me. The ones with heart. Now, I’ve finally finished writing and illustrating one of my own. I hope it speaks to you.
“…A cackleberry is a wondrous thing. Strange, to be sure, but wondrous just the same. They are friends of rot, re-claimers of damp wood and molding stone. Thin tendrils pale as waterlogged fingers push up from carpets of matted leaves and rise from the forest floor. A swelling, a blooming, a beginning. A cackleberry is a rare occurrence. Some liken them to mushrooms, or puffballs, while others think them more similar to flower buds. Either way, they are said to hold the dreams of the forest. This particular cackleberry grew in the shadow of an oak snag. It glowed softly, pulsing to the rhythm of decaying oak roots. Held tight within its shell was a small girl. She had spent a thousand days cloaked in black dirt and cradled by oak roots. She had swum through places beneath the forest floor, friend to the mycelium that threaded the dirt like stars. Then she had been drawn above. Now her world split open. Something wondrous was about to happen.”
This is the story of a girl, who finds herself in an unknown wood. A girl who dares to look for the choice not offered. The story follows Oona as she journeys through the Scraggle Wood looking for a way to fulfill her heart’s desire. It is, of course, a fairy tale, though a bit of an odd one.
My first book is on kickstarter. The project was fully funded on the first day. Now We’re working toward some stretch goals to add more art and content to the book. You can view all the details here.
“…A cackleberry is a wondrous thing. Strange, to be sure, but wondrous just the same. They are friends of rot, re-claimers of damp wood and molding stone. Thin tendrils pale as waterlogged fingers push up from carpets of matted leaves and rise from the forest floor. A swelling, a blooming, a beginning. A cackleberry is a rare occurrence. Some liken them to mushrooms, or puffballs, while others think them more similar to flower buds. Either way, they are said to hold the dreams of the forest. This particular cackleberry grew in the shadow of an oak snag. It glowed softly, pulsing to the rhythm of decaying oak roots. Held tight within its shell was a small girl. She had spent a thousand days cloaked in black dirt and cradled by oak roots. She had swum through places beneath the forest floor, friend to the mycelium that threaded the dirt like stars. Then she had been drawn above. Now her world split open. Something wondrous was about to happen.”
This is the story of a girl, who finds herself in an unknown wood. A girl who dares to look for the choice not offered. The story follows Oona as she journeys through the Scraggle Wood looking for a way to fulfill her heart’s desire. It is, of course, a fairy tale, though a bit of an odd one.
To see more art and writing and even pre-order the book visit
“…A cackleberry is a wondrous thing. Strange, to be sure, but wondrous just the same. They are friends of rot, re-claimers of damp wood and molding stone. Thin tendrils pale as waterlogged fingers push up from carpets of matted leaves and rise from the forest floor. A swelling, a blooming, a beginning. A cackleberry is a rare occurrence. Some liken them to mushrooms, or puffballs, while others think them more similar to flower buds. Either way, they are said to hold the dreams of the forest. This particular cackleberry grew in the shadow of an oak snag. It glowed softly, pulsing to the rhythm of decaying oak roots. Held tight within its shell was a small girl. She had spent a thousand days cloaked in black dirt and cradled by oak roots. She had swum through places beneath the forest floor, friend to the mycelium that threaded the dirt like stars. Then she had been drawn above. Now her world split open. Something wondrous was about to happen.”
This is the story of a girl, who finds herself in an unknown wood. A girl who dares to look for the choice not offered. The story follows Oona as she journeys through the Scraggle Wood looking for a way to fulfill her heart’s desire. It is, of course, a fairy tale, though a bit of an odd one.
To see more art and writing and even pre-order the book visit
“…A cackleberry is a wondrous thing. Strange, to be sure, but wondrous just the same. They are friends of rot, re-claimers of damp wood and molding stone. Thin tendrils pale as waterlogged fingers push up from carpets of matted leaves and rise from the forest floor. A swelling, a blooming, a beginning. A cackleberry is a rare occurrence. Some liken them to mushrooms, or puffballs, while others think them more similar to flower buds. Either way, they are said to hold the dreams of the forest. This particular cackleberry grew in the shadow of an oak snag. It glowed softly, pulsing to the rhythm of decaying oak roots. Held tight within its shell was a small girl. She had spent a thousand days cloaked in black dirt and cradled by oak roots. She had swum through places beneath the forest floor, friend to the mycelium that threaded the dirt like stars. Then she had been drawn above. Now her world split open. Something wondrous was about to happen.”
This is the story of a girl, who finds herself in an unknown wood. A girl who dares to look for the choice not offered.
The story follows Oona as she journeys through the Scraggle Wood looking for a way to fulfill her heart’s desire. It is, of course, a fairy tale, though a bit of an odd one.
To see more art and writing, and even pre-order the book visit
