For these special edition Babyaga houses, Hochbaum combines halloween and the classic horror film genere. These inspirations pull triggers from the artist's childhood and a seasonal allure to an atmosphere of mystery, macabre, and fears.
 
They are a celebration of the ghosts and monsters. It is a chance for Hochbaum to conjur new versions of characters to play out the parts of the cast of characters that represent Halloween to him.
 
Hochbaum channels the classic ghost figure, the white cloaked apparition. For the artist, this captuers several inspirations including the RIng Wraiths  from Tolkin's books< the plague masks of the 1600's, and the phantoms of Scooby Doo, mostly the "strawberry , chocolate , and vanilla " phantoms.
 
"Phantom" is from the first edition of the " Halloween Hybrid" series. 
The classic house shape that David uses is shrouded in a sheet of rice paper that is painted in acrylics and further stiffined and shaped with PVA glue.
 
It is presented here on it's own cutom stand made with chunk of a branch from a Japanese  maple treee that dies in the artist's front yard. He loved the tree but it grew sick and had to be removed. Hochbaum cut most of the tree into pieces to use for sculpture as well as fencing in the yard..
 
The maple stump is mounted to a  2.5" square block of hardwood. The whole piece stands at approx. 9" high.
 
The bottom is titled and signed.
There are 4 brass tacks applied to the bottom to help balance the piece as well as help preserve the inscription on the bottom.
 
This series is truly dedicated to the joys and fears from childhood remembrances of the discoveries of the different levels in which horrors exist.
 
Not every collector's cup of tea but a must have for the lover of a unique and macabre oddities.