I call this mixed media (Acrylic and Digital) piece "What Creeps in the Dark?".

And now for a spooky memory set 7 years ago...

I was driving home one late night. Earlier, I had a full day of horror movies, pizza, fries and chili at a buddy's house. He lives along a stretch of heavily wooded highway where houses are far and few between.

Suddenly, my car starts to vibrate in the rear. I pull over on the shoulder of the dark deserted road. My trusty flashlight reveals a very flat tire. I then open my trunk and get all the usual items ready in situation like this; jack, lug wrench, and spare tire.

As I'm laying out my "Change a Tire Goodie Pile", there’s a far off noise that keeps grabbing my attention. It sounds like something moving through the woods behind me. Being that it was far away, it didn’t seem too important. Probably some benign woodland critter like a deer or farmer Brown's runaway cow.

While cursing the last impact wrench tighten lug nut, I finally brake it free. A feeling makes me keep glancing toward the woods, as I jack up the car. I don't see anything out of the ordinary, but I sure feel like I'm being watched.

The far away noise seems to be getting closer. I turn around and point my light toward the woods. The moving sound stops immediately as my light’s beam hit the treeline. The idea of the noise being more malicious than deer or cows starts to run through my head. Getting uncomfortable, I decide to pick up the pace on this tire changing session.

The sound kept moving closer and then fading away from me. And it would stop every time I pointed my light toward the woods. By the time I was getting my spare on, I had enough. Bears and shady humans danced in my head. I decide 3 somewhat snug lug nuts out of 5 was plenty. I quickly let the jack down, threw my stuff into the trunk and drive off.

When I got to a more populated area, I stopped to put on the 2 missing lug nuts from my pocket. After giving them all a good tightening, I continued my journey home.

So what was in the deep dark woods that night? Only the nearby woodland critter or hobgoblin knows for sure.