Paranormal Artist Profile: Donie Odulio
Donie's artwork perfectly captures the eeriness of Chicago's mothman sightings.
Fortean artist Donie Odulio is a talented illustrator with an eye for the unusual. He began his career as an independent comic book artist, and was hired by an animation studio prior to his current career as a graphic designer. He prefers traditional paper and pencil when drawing, and it's that classic look that lent itself so well to his interpretation of Chicago's mothman.
Donie has always been interested in the paranormal, and so it's only natural that he turned his talents toward expressing those types of experiences.
"It's always been an interest for me and after reading about some of the more obscure sightings my imagination takes over, and you have to wonder what these things look like," he said.
We can't imagine confusing a sandhill crane for this guy.
"There's so many [paranormal stories] but I'd say the Chicago mothman sightings," Donie replied when asked to name his favorite.
"With so many reported sightings I wonder how many are fake, made up or just misidentified," he said. "Even if you eliminate 80% as misidentified or fake the remaining reports must have seen something they never seen. Then I wonder how many people might have seen something strange but brushed it off and never reported it."
Donie himself has had his rational mind disregard some potentially paranormal activity.
"Not really," he said of whether or not he's experienced the paranormal. "Maybe some but my rational mind can easily brush them off as a bad dream or a house creaking...but there has been some weird ones."
There's plenty of room in Donie's artistic vision for things other than mothman, of course.
Donie's interest in the unusual goes beyond just mothman, and he told us that the Flatwoods Monster is his favorite fortean entity.
"Flatwoods Virginia monster is probably the best," he said. "It's the wildest by description and if somebody hoaxed that they had a good amount of money and a really interesting sense of imagination."
He is similarly interested in David Paulides' work in Missing 411.
"I'm not sure if it's paranormal but recently I read a few David Paulides' Missing 411 books and interviews that lays out some really interesting unsolved mysteries," said Donie.
Donie is constantly coming out with new and interesting artwork that we're sure you'll love, so make sure to check in at his website--especially if you're in the market for some wonderfully weird work yourself--and follow him on Instagram at @donie_odulio.