“It’s hard to scare me”: The Occult Art of Freeman Vines (SLIDESHOW)

Late luthier, philosopher, and contemporary artist Freeman Vines (Hanging Tree Guitars) was no stranger to the macabre. Skulls and snakes were recurring motifs in his work – what author Zoe van Buren calls “a momento mori to the closeness of death at the hands of racism and the violence of power held over another.” And he held a lifelong fascination with mysticism and the supernatural, from voodoo and Wicca to numerology and sacred geometry.

“I kind of went to the occult side because it seemed like it had an answer for every problem,” Freeman once said.

This Halloween, we’re revisiting the spookier side of his art through some of his most esoteric paintings, drawings, sculptures, and guitars. Step into the occult world of Freeman Vines in the slideshow below – if you dare!