The Art of Skinner

A reptilian monster hand reaches across the screen, etching a single word in dripping blood: Skinner. It fades and is replaced by a barrage of splattering gore. And that’s just the Flash intro. Sacramento artist Skinner Davis’ new Web site hosts a striking collection of ghoulish graphics to click through. The online gallery takes you on a phantasmagoric ride through the childish male power fantasies of comic-book-land, twisting them into a subconscious horror-surrealism of lurking wizards, evil unicorns and other wild and hallucinatory visions. Familiar images such as pumpkins, ghosts and the Hulk are merged with hauntingly alien dreamscapes. A grinning serpentine creature rips Superman’s head off. Demons crowd out backgrounds of obsessively layered color. It’s Halloween eye candy, on LSD.