"Saint Toad"

Dimensions peculiar; acrylic & oil on recycled wood. Fused frame consists of salvaged industrial & commercial materials, animal bones, resin, putty, found objects, automotive paint, acrylics, sealant.
Concepts: HPL, Clark Ashton Smith, others

Detail of first panel.

Tsathoggua is old, slothful, and possessed of a great hunger for living flesh. Composed of an oily black slime, Tsathoggua is a shape shifter who prefers the form of a giant toad covered in "hair" (more like cilia) with some features of a bat or other nocturnal, earthly animals. The beast apparently exchanges power for sacrifices - which must be brought to the cavern wherein lazy Tsathoggua dwells - and has been revered (or respectfully feared) by humans and other beings since Hyperborean times. While this cavern can be reached from Earth, it seems to intersect several other worlds as well, and Tsathoggua's unwholesome, amorphous spawn may appear anywhere without warning, sliding through openings as small as the crack beneath a door. While the Sleeper is usually given the pronoun "he", this spawning ability does not seem to require a mate (although it possibly requires a living body to gestate). See Shrine #6 for possible clues, although some authors indicate that any matter shed by Tsathoggua remains alive and capable of growth and some connection to the mind of the originating body.