Featured Art
Sunset Stroll
Within the ancient walls of Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Triple Bridge on Ljubljanica
an evening scene from the wonderful Slovenian capitol.
Library Talks
Click here for info on presenting Strange Tales in Stone.
Hanging in 2023
on exhibit from September 21 thru October 19, two pieces accepted into the SCA&HC International and Global Perspectives Juried Exhibition.
All Past Exhibits
Horror Hound: A Nose for Sniffing Out the Spooky
Traveling the world to dig up spots that inspired our spookiest tales is a really entertaining pursuit, but it can present challenges. Some sites are easily found with little more than a map, others are less obvious. In case you are motivated to sniff out these inspiring sites, the following articles may come in handy...
Brugge's Scurvy Dog
On the Scent of Tom Riddle's Buried Bones
Penned in by William McGonagall
Pointing the Way to Bram Stoker's Spot
DaVinci Code Downward Dog
The Tale of Becoming a Castle Hunter
From my first inspiration during a mysterious Transylvanian ruin I saw in 2008 to vacations designed to seek out crumbled strongholds, my castle hunting has been one Gothic adventure after another. Here's how it all happened...
My castle hunting story
Transylvania Trip
From the summer of 2008.
Dracula tour journal
STONES is a collection of pencil renderings and watercolors by artist Steve Gale focusing on Gothic structures of stone. Primarily depicting castle ruins, this body of work also includes other subject matter, all relevant to this medieval construction material.
Inspired by photographic explorations captured during many trips to Europe, this body of work has expanded in multiple directions. Strange Tales in Stone depicts the stone facades of structures that contributed to classic Universal horror. The connection of Count Dracula to Vlad Tepes (Romanian for "the Impaler"), son of Vlad Dracul is fairly well known, but many other horror characters are similarly linked. Doctor Jekyll was inspired by the duplicitous life of William Brody. Victor Frankenstein may also have had a real life model as well as the ancestral fortress of the same name. Other structures such as the Paris Opera House and Cathedral de Notre Dame served as settings for classic Universal melodrama with speculations that actual people served as character models.
Click here for information on hosting a family friendly, 45 minute strange tales in stone art exhibit and/or presentation in your library.

An effort is underway to develop a subset called American Stone. But until that is ready for presentation I hope you'll join me in exploration of the great ruins of Europe both - historical and macabre.

Castle Ruins Exhibit