Happy Halloween - Day 21 - Christopher Burk

Happy Friday evening readers. I've deliberately left this one until this time of day to bring something to your attention. This is the first of the two weekends that usually mark Halloween parties. Recently I found myself walking home in the dark down a surprisingly quiet residential street.

 There's something about when the weather changes and the night draws in so much faster than you expected. Every sound under your feet becomes amplified and being alone on a street suddenly seems less the blissful strolls of summer and more unnverving.

I found myself looking up at the houses to stop myself feeling shaken up by quite how dark it had gotten but only some houses had their lights on and somehow the glow coming from those windows made it all the more obvious how late it was and how alone I was. Now, I was perfectly fine, but have you ever experienced that? A light on in a house's window you've never seen on before? A glimpse of a colourful glow behind a garage that doesn't seem quite right? A street lamp illuminating a shape that might have been just a cat or was it something else?

Christopher Burk's murky Hopperesque paintings of suburban houses at night fill me with that Stranger Things style dread that I feel walking home on Autumn evenings that reminds me that Autumn is well and truly here. Maybe as you're headed home one night this weekend and look up at your own house to think, did I leave that light in my attic window on?

You can see more of Christopher's decidedly less spooky but still great work on his website.