Illustrations 

Dark

Stark

Scary

Mysterious

Victorian

Many children worked 16 hours a day

It was cold

It was bleak

Life was harsh and hard

There was always hunger

Scrooge was angry

Hostile

Controlling

Spiteful

Stubborn

Immature

Revengeful

Thin lipped

Mean old man

He had no joy

Or love in his heart

He was angry

Unenlightened

Unevolved

Void of empathy or compassion

I wanted you to see that in his face

I wanted you to feel the horrid afterlife of Marley

I went to the library and brought every illustrated Dickens book I could find to a table and took in the images

I then while still at the library took my pen to paper

And began drawing

They were rough sketches

I went home and used my watercolor paints to give texture and depth

I wanted them to be raw and simple

And not particularly obvious

In the end

The light of awareness bursts forth

— Paige Peterson