“I, myself, am strange and unusual”  – Lydia Deetz (BeetleJuice, 1988)

Ever since I was a kid, I had an interest in strange and unusual things, like our little pale-faced Ms. Deetz. My mom always said oh so lovingly that I’m “so strange sometimes” and I always took it as the biggest compliment because I’ve always aspired to be different. Whether I wore different clothes, listened to eccentric music, watched odd movies, remembered insignificant details and collected a bunch of like-wise friends for the ride, who nourished my habits even more.

20 years later and I’m still devoted to my imagination which goes far beyond movies and tv shows. And although I enjoy writing an occasional movie review, it’s not enough and I want to expand. Hence, the birth of my new category: The Strange & Unusual. I really hope you’ll like it and relate to it.

Meet Lois Hannah – my new favorite illustrator

My frequent visits to Instagram and boredom at work have inspired me to dig in some really cool Insta-profiles, websites, and blogs that have a taste for the fantastic and macabre. I found loads of golden nuggets out there and I hope to cover them all one day, but today I really want to focus on illustrator and designer Lois Hannah.

Lois’ Instagram account is brilliant and contains offbeat prints and illustrations which I hoped were available to buy. Lois is an uber-talented illustrator and designer from Manchester, who loves creating art that makes people happy. And her art makes me very happy! I picked my favorites for a tiny display right below:

“Floating Ghost” by Lois Hannah

“The Patchwork Beluga” by Lois Hannah

“Pumpkin Boy’s Nightmare” by Lois Hannah

Lois adds a short story to each piece that tells a tiny tale of her illustrated characters. For instance, the story of Oyster Boy is particularly unfortunate and sweet because Oyster Boy awoke in the middle of the night to the noisy noise of Mr. Crow and lost his head during the commotion – “Pumpkin Boy awoke in the middle of the night to the noisy noise of Mr. Crow causing a scene outside in his wheat field. He rushed to see what was wrong but his poor head fell right off! The singing cloud decided to sing him a song to cheer him up and hopefully let him fall back to sleep!”

The combination of printed art and texts is not something I see very often on an artist’s webpage and I think Lois has a profound imagination and I would love to pick her brains sometime. I bet she’s a TIM Burton fan because her short stories and artwork reminded me a lot of Burton’s work. In any case, Lois has found her own unique way to showcase her art and has compiled some of her work into what she calls the “Dream Week” series.

All prints are trimmed square (approx. 21x21cm). Printed on 271gsm Oyster paper, and available to purchase on Lois’s website. I also highly recommend checking out her Instagram account as it documents so much more of her outstanding work. I’m seriously thinking that some of these illustrations will perfectly decorate any child’s bedroom and I’m adopting the idea and going to purchase three particularly unusual illustrations to hang on my own wall as a set.

➣ Website: https://www.loishannah.com
➣ Instagram: @byloishannah