Study of Teccla Sweeping Ash from the Shrine Steps

Study of Teccla Sweeping Ash from the Shrine Steps, 2025. Sanguine ink on vellum, 4 x 6 in.

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Ashes and Dust is set in the Rodinian city-state of Zabool. The settlement is situated near a crater of eternal flame that spews clouds of ash into the air at regular intervals. This “ashfall” is one of the few natural cycles of time present on Neith, and functions as a day/night cycle for the settlement’s residents: people sleep while the ash falls and dig or sweep themselves out after it stops.

The natural rhythm of the ashfall conflicts with the rhythm of time as kept by the Enshrinement of Lucca, which depends on the burning of sacred candles. The priestesses at Zabool’s Shrine of Lucca often perform illuminations and read passages to an empty shrine during ashfall and repeat the readings once everyone else has woken up. One of Teccla’s jobs around the shrine is keeping the front steps clear of fallen ashes.

“Sweeping, sweeping, sweeping!
Sweepy, sweepy, sweep!
Sweep away the ashes before they get too deep!
Line them up like prisoners, back them up against the wall!
Raise your guns and—”

— Teccla's sweeping song, thankfully interrupted

Study of Venzell in Brown Ink

Study of Venzell in Brown Ink, 2025. Brown ink and gouache on vellum, 4 x 6 in.

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Lonesome Voyages was, alongside Ashes and Dust, going to have been an illustrated adventure game set in the world of Neith. Inspired by the COVID pandemic and Xavier de Maistre’s Voyage Around My Room, the game had two conceits: first, it took place in one setting, Venzell Andlauer Katzainer’s chambers in his family’s second home in the Zeelean Regency capital of Bardezant. Second, the player would have only controlled Venzell’s daydreams and fantasies. Every scene from the “real world” would have been non-interactive, scripted according to choices made by the player in the realm of fantasy.

“Is there anything more natural and more just than to put an end to it all, aided by someone who inadvertently treads on your toes, or drops some rather pointed remark in a moment of irritation occasioned by your thoughtlessness?”

— Xavier de Maistre

After accidentally fighting a duel against a student theologian, Reinhilde, Venzell is sentenced by an Enshrinement rector to 40 passages of house arrest. Passing the time with daydreams inspired by his collection of art and books, Venzell’s solitary journey could have gone in several different directions. “Guiding” him is an entity called Marra that visits him in his sleep, suffocating him and taunting him about choices he might have made differently.

Study of Galena Wrapped in a Sheet

Study of Galena Wrapped in a Sheet, 2025. Brown and sepia inks and gouache on vellum, 6 x 8 in,

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The character of Galena was drawn from many different sources. Her endless quest for increasingly intense sensations—and the use of heroic doses of alcohol and substances to approach such a heightened state—was inspired by the painter Francis Bacon’s biography and interviews. I also modeled aspects of her personality and speech on someone I once knew who was simultaneously a psychopath and a masochist: quite a combo.

A line from William Gibson’s Count Zero was also inspiring:

“And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.”

— William Gibson

Galena displays “inhumanity” through her inappropriate reactions to situations, whether it’s poking her nose into a painting she’s trying to figure out how to appreciate, laughing uncontrollably at a fistfight, or taking visceral pleasure in having large amounts of money stolen from her purse in an elevator car.

Balladine Cradling a Wounded Bird

Balladine Cradling a Wounded Bird, 2025. Charcoal, graphite, pastel, colored pencil, black chalk, black ink, and gouache on vellum, 9 x 12 in.

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When I worked in the archives at Knoedler & Company, I would sometimes take my lunch breaks at the Frick Collection on the same block. Since I didn’t have much time to spend there, I had a route that would let me see five particular paintings. One of them was Ingres’s portrait of the Comtesse d’Haussonville.

I associate the Ingres portrait with my time at Knoedler, and the gallery’s downfall inspired the art counterfeiting plot of The Vaster Conspiracy, so I wanted to find a place to reference the Comtesse. Her distinctive face and blue dress just happened to fit the image I had of Balladine, so the humble housekeeper got a noble makeover, with each drawing of her referencing the Ingres painting in some way. Here, I used a cool Lamp Black pastel to contrast the warmer black tones of the bird and the rest of the drawing, suggesting a blue dress without using color,

Study of Renata During the Binge (Full Body Version)

Study of Renata During the Binge (Full Body Version), 2025. Blue ink on vellum, 6 x 8 in.

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Renata is a character who shows up in several stories. In the original draft of The Vaster Conspiracy, I gave her a brief cameo in which she is passed out drunk in a banquette next to Dr. Rasteban at the Breslin Bay Old Colonist’s Club. In the second draft, I wrote a scene in which Vaster and Renata go on a binge together, with Vaster interrogating her about Dr. Rasteban’s dubious medical experiments until he gets so intoxicated that he forgets what they’re talking about.

The black square tattoo on Renata’s shoulder is a cover-up. This raises the question: if the rest of her body is covered with demonic sigils and arcane talismans, what was so dangerous that it needed to be completely blacked out?

The composition of this study was inspired by Caravaggio’s strong use of the edge as a framing device, as seen in paintings like Self Portrait as Bacchus and Conversion on the Way to Damascus.