Creative Altars
From the Desk of Kristin Lisenby
Creative Altars is a collection of musings, memories, and creative seeds from the desks of Pointy Hat Press co-founders, Kristin Lisenby & Caitlyn Barone. In this series, two witches share their current inspirations, works in progress, and other glimmers of everyday magick. Questions for Pointy Hat Press? Send a DM or leave a comment for Kristin and Caitlyn below.
From the desk of Kristin Lisenby…
A couple of months ago, I traveled from the Azores to California to see family. It was my first trip to the States in three years. I also stayed with friends in Asheville for a few days, and wandered the chilly streets of Boston, where I stumbled upon some urban cemeteries and a mansion-turned-museum. I returned to the islands in time to settle in for the Winter Solstice and my 40th birthday, and to step across the 2026 threshold. Naturally, I brought home all sorts of things to keep me weird and inspired during the dark months. Here are a few of the recent magical finds lighting up my creative altar.
“I’d like to get one, but I’m not sure if they make comics for people like me,” I said to my mom.
By “people like me,” I meant those who are fairly bookish and spookish but know nothing about superheroes or the world of graphic novels.
About 15 seconds after sharing this assumption with my mom, I spotted the cover of The Last Days of H.P. Lovecraft.
I’ve only read a bit of Lovecraft lore here and there, although his influence in the genres of horror and science fiction is undeniable. Lovecraft was a 20th-century American author who specialized in weird tales, a kind of supernatural fiction blended with Victorian occultism. It’s best to meet a weird tale by reading one, but Lovecraft attempted to describe his style of writing and insisted it was “more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains.” He wanted to take readers on a quest to an impossible destination, somewhere mysterious and unnameable, a land ruled by monsters and poisoned by humanity’s thirst for secret knowledge.
Lovecraft is renowned for creating his own invented mythology, with some suggesting he was just “as influential on fantastic fiction as Tolkien.”
“I couldn't live a week without a private library - indeed, I'd part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess.”
H.P. Lovecraft
After visiting the comic book store in my former college town, I ran into the best wall of postcards at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and, naturally, I picked a few of the best, including this tile Medusa.
Also from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is this 19th-century print of the goddess Astarte by John Singer Sargent. Until I find the perfect frame, she’s resting on the altar next to her bestie, Medusa.
My California visits always end with a book haul (mostly secondhand), and this year it amounted to 25 books, split between two suitcases. I’m addicted to scouring eBay for strange and out-of-print books, and managed to score a vintage copy of The King and the Corpse by Heinrich Zimmer and a 1961 edition of the channeled book, A Vision, by Georgie Hyde-Lees and W.B. Yeats. My beloved books were the first thing I unpacked when I arrived home, and this channeled drawing slipped out from between the pages of one. I commissioned this drawing from Amanda Paulson a couple of years ago, and I'd forgotten my parents were holding onto it for me. I have no clue how it snuck its way into my book haul, but I’m elated it did.
This book stack.
P.S. Say hi to Word Witch, Kate Belew’s latest baby that finally made it across the ocean and into my bookshelf.
Some words from Ruth Awad that have been haunting me (in the best way).
I’ve been getting to know a new (old) tarot deck: Navigators of the Mystic Sea by Julia A. Turk. This deck was born in the 90s and is described as a “surrealist reinterpretation of the arcana's traditional imagery.” I love it.
Here’s a closer look at some of the cards.
Happy New Year, Literary Coven! What trinkets and magical finds are illuminating your creative altars?
Hoping you will like our Lovecraft !
Best Regards,
Romuald
I'm really intrigued by that channeled art piece...