Skeletons & Ugly Stuff
Skeletons and Other Ugly Stuff
A skeleton showed up in my sketchbook this morning.
Uninvited, as most shadows are.
Not long after, I saw it again—this time on a cushion at a worksite, quickly whisked away by an agent muttering, "Yuk."
There was a time I would have agreed.
Skulls, bones, symbols of death—they used to make me uneasy too.
But something’s changed.
Today, there was no resistance as I doodled that bony form.
I leaned in, adding delicate lines, shading its hollow spaces with care and colour.
There was a strange peace in the process, like meeting an old part of myself I hadn’t dared to acknowledge before.
That’s when the old Inuit tale of the Skeleton Woman came to mind—
how she was dragged from the sea, scary and bone by bone,
brought back to life through presence, breath, and compassion.
I thought about the things we exile: aging, grief, failure, anger, death, and so on.
The “ugly” stuff.
We try to fixate on positivity and “nice vibes only.”
But they’re not truly gone.
They live in us, tucked beneath skin and story, rattling gently until we’re ready to listen.
The skeleton was my first doodle and my invitation.
I’ve made many more scary doodles since,
spending time with them—exploring their tears, fears, and ugliness.
And I can tell you now:
I don’t fear the void anymore.
I’ve sat in it. Had tea with it.
Made art out of it.
Turned it into wings, stories, and symbols.
I no longer rush to banish what’s uncomfortable or dark.
Instead, I light a lantern and go there.
Not to fix it.
Not to fight it.
But to meet what lives there.
Inuit tale From Darkness. About Skeleton Woman and healing thought relating :