Traditional Cthulhu Statues

Artist Corinne Crowe is offering quality statues of Cthulhu cast from resin at the website Cthulhu Statues. Interestingly in this series, the artist has sought to remain faithful to the descriptions of the Cthulhu idol given by H.P. Lovecraft himself in "The Call of Cthulhu." The shape of Cthulhu and its color--mixed using a blend of subtle shades in the resin casting process--results in traditional Lovecraftian statues of varying color. The artist also seems to have experimented with a glow in the dark powder to give the statues a luminescence, but results don't seem entirely successful yet. Many examples, both sold and still available, can be viewed in the images posted in the catalog here.

Somehow, the vaguer aspects of Cthulhu in these idols does seem truer to Lovecraft. That's not to say the innumerable Cthulhu statues churned out by other artists over the years, in which they infuse a very clear artistic vision of their own, are any less chilling. Yet, one of Lovecraft's undeniable literary strengths, like most great weird writers, lay in his ability to maximize suggestive terrors culled directly from the reader's own imagination. While this ability rarely carries over as well into visual art, these statues from Crowe do an apt job. They stand as a hazy representation of monstrous outerness, with an authentic and appropriate "aging" (as though the uglier features of Cthulhu formerly present were eroded over time). All in all, one of these is well worth having on your bookshelf, and for about $100 US each statue retails for, they are competitively priced with the other independent sculptures of Cthulhu out there.

-Grim Blogger