I’m enamored with Halloween to the point that I have bats hanging in my room all year around. A bust of a vampire Ozzy Osbourne I sculpted in high school art class still frightens my little cousin every time he comes over to visit. I wear a vial of blood on my neck and have barbed wire or skull jewelry on a near every-day basis. It does not have to be anywhere near October for "Ms. Hyde" to show up.
Eating brains became a reality as even the food was festive. Photo by Alec Damiano.I previously talked with Daniel Davis, the monster mastermind behind this event. But I decided to take a look at Keen Halloween myself from a guest standpoint.I knew there would be a variety of events like tutorials for building poison apple crates, but I guess I got there too late. Unfortunately, most of these events had taken place before 6 p.m., and I arrived around 7 p.m. Nonetheless, there were still things to be seen.
A variety of merchants sold eccentric artwork at their booths as a band jangled covers of Blue Öyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” and “This is Halloween” from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” on their acoustic guitars. Children dressed in costumes played at the side of the stage, toying around with orange tinsel streamers and bundles of hay.
Brillare Hairdressing Academy offered zombie makeup tutorials and had creepy zombie mannequins on their table. But do not fear as the mannequins were the scariest thing at the event. Steam Crow’s booth was by far the largest, with their prints plastered several yards high and wide. They sold poison bottles, wooden brooches, shot glasses and a variety of other knick-knacks.
The Steam Crow booth's main attraction was the festive trinkets they had to offer. Photo by Alec Damiano.What particularly grabbed my eye were trinkets like miniature brains served in teacups, coffin-shaped jewelry boxes and maracas decorated like sugar skulls.
Overall, Keen Halloween was an enjoyable event. I just wish I had gone sooner to experience more of the oddities the event had to offer.
Do you know of any interesting art, entertainment or crafts you’d like me to cover? Tweet me at @DamianoAlec or email me at Alec.Damiano@asu.edu. To see some of my artwork, click here.
