As a kid, Sean Gallagher had a poster hanging on his bedroom wall of Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies, which helped him learn the alphabet from its morbid rhymes and illustrations, a delightful combination for anyone practicing reading skills with a blossoming macabre sense of humor. The one that stuck with him is for the fourteenth letter, ‘N is for Neville who died of ennui.' The illustration depicts a small face staring longingly out a gothic window, a haunting image that sparked his curiosity of uncovering what ‘ennui’ meant and how an artist could portray a child succumbing to existential boredom so well. Gallagher got hooked on Gorey’s outlook and style and sought out his other works, from his range of cover art for novels to pieces he produced for magazines to books he wrote and drew to watching PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery! just to see the animated opening sequence based on his stuff. 

Gorey taught Gallagher to appreciate the ghoulish side of the everyday and find simplicity in lines and color, which he incorporated into his own style as Gallagher developed as an artist. Yet he couldn’t rely on the same ghastly wit that defined Gorey’s work. Gallagher credits his parents for building an environment that allowed his creative side to flourish. If it hadn’t been for them, Gallagher wouldn’t have started drawing or been introduced to Gorey or stumbled upon the core of his artwork, which he found in the dozens of coffee table books about photography his parents owned. Gallagher was drawn to the works of Diane Arbus and Saul Leiter and he studied how they composed a shot to reveal beauty in the mundane and the dignity of outsiders. Gallagher was especially inspired by the Arbus quote, “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.” From that, he found that he loved the challenge of making in-between moments picturesque. 

So far, this approach has been successful.

Recently, Gallagher was selected for the Under the Radar series, which celebrates the top 10 undiscovered artist in the lowcountry by Charleston Magazine. His art has also been featured or is slated to appear in several publications: 

• Allegory Ridge

• Tint Journal

• The Closed Eye Open

• Passengers Journal

• Vineyard Literary

• Red Ogre Review

• Liminal Spaces

• Beaver Magazine

• Fauxmoir Literary Magazine

• Quarter Press

• High Shelf Press