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i look at your page at least once a day, your art emits this feeling in me i cannot explain but it moves me deeply and you’re incredibly talented

Well then you're gonna have a surprise today and see your ask on my page!

Everytime a new fad comes along (algorythm changes, NFT's, AI) I'm always nervous that my art has come to its end and everytime I am proven wrong. Messages like that really help keeping me afloat and maintain my faith in myself AND in art itself

Thank you for making me feel irreplaceable

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i feel like you got one of those bee genders. like, there is one but not one humans can understand or relate to. or maybe you are literally a swarm of bees under a trenchcoat

Comments made towards me by people who actually perceived me;

''I don't know what you are but it's definetely not straight''

''Oh you're dressed like Crowley (from Good Omens)'' (I wasn't)

''You look like a vampire trying to blend in''

''It's so satisfying when artists look artistic''

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Excuse me. Found ur work on instagram and had to see it closer. I want to talk about you with my friend. What are ur pronouns?

Hey! My pronouns? Well they're -a bunch of loud trucks drive by-

I just post my work, I'm truly okay with any pronouns online (as long as I understand them, english isn't my first language)

Say hi to your friend for me!

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The missing horsemen

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Do you also have a recommended reading for the horseman of conquest?

I do, actually.

Recommended reading: I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country by Elena Kostyuchenko

The controversial title caught my eye in the bookstore and the recommendation by Svetlana Alexievitch (author of books used for the other horsemen, mainly Voices of Chernobyl and The Last Witnesses) on the back of the book sealed the deal.

After reading it I knew exactly who would be the face of Conquest...

A small extra too - Song recommendation: Eternal Sunshine by Flower Face. Especially the second half of the song. I listened to it often.

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I just saw your conquest on bluesky and wanted to know your intentions on why you drew it that way. Like how you explained your choices with the other 4. (I love the drawing by the way)

Conquest, as promised! For those wondering, there are only four horsemen of the apocalypse but Conquest is often replaced with War or Pestilence, so I decided to make a version of it as well.

Again, these are the reasons why I drew them the way I did.

The symbolism is for you to chose, there is no wrong answer.

CONQUEST:

-''You’re blinded by what you're meant to represent, clutching blank-slate children to be painted in your colors. The weight of your growing flag suffocates those you’re meant to protect, yet you can’t stand without them. Your horse stays still and only gazes into the past'' - My twitter explanation

-Yes, that is thread and needle, to sew more into their growing cloak/flag. It can be mistaken as a tool of help and union. It is also a reference to the bow and arrow the original Conquest horsemen has.

-Someone asked whether the needle is a symbol of re-sowing maps, altering borders. Good eye! Hence why there's thread lines across their cloak.

-The double-headed eagle commonly represents empires. I had a specific one in mind for this.

-The horse has radiation/biohazard symbology embedded into its skull. Those horns are meant to be a threat. Someone said it represents the ultimate conquest of mankind, which is a very interesting concept

-A variation of this design has been in my drafts for over 5 years but got re-purposed as Conquest

People added a lot of beautiful interpretations for this particular drawing. Especially those who speculate why I added a child in the drawing. I love to read through them and once again, it is a big surprise that people reacted to passionately to these designs. Thank you very much!

Many are wondering what's next. The deadly sins? The heavenly virtues? Tarot? Mythological art? I always have ideas

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Why didn't you come sooner?

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The thing thats stumping me with the tarot project is that so many minor arcana cards have similar concepts but in different fonts. There's only ao many cards about a new journey and self discovery that I can draw.....

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“I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.”

Arrived after

What would you do to a world that destroyed the only person who was merciful towards you?

The fallen angel and the son of God

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The last drawing was sooooo blasted on twitter, I got called every name that would get me suspended, got told I'll burn in hell, that people like me are why some should get burn at the stake, mild death threats. Strangely, got told that it was a very ''tumblr'' intrepretation so I'm genuinely curious how people on tumblr will react...

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In my mind, it made sense to draw Jesus comforting Lucifer, to slice a piece off his own cloak to stop the bleeding. Two divine beings made to roam the earth. It can’t be blasphemy to draw him kind…

The fallen angel and the son of God

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The fallen angel and the son of God

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Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Design Commentary

Based on the notes of a doctor who said the most frightening thing about viral disease was how it didn’t frighten. People didn’t know or didn't care. They lived and spread until it was too late and they became another name on the record.

The clothing being made out of shredding plastic is no coincidence; pollution is a form of pestilence too

Four horsemen of the apocalypse - pestilence

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Hiii, I was just wandering if you wouldn’t mind blabbing about the symbolism and stuff behind some of your design choices with the horse men that you might not have mentioned. Like with pestilence and death specifically I feel like there’s a lot of symbolism I’m picking up on without fully understanding. Like with Death’s sickle, both a homage to the classic scythe and a nod to the “reaping/harvesting” of souls. And with pestilence I feel like there’s something that I’m skirting around without grasping. The multiple legs strike me as a deliberate similarity to insects, and if I’m right I think that the rider is bound in a body bag type deal, similar to how disease and pestilence is so often both spread through the improper disposal of body’s, and how wide spread pestilence leads to mass graves filled with disease and the horrible anonymity that comes with being just one face in a pit of hundreds etc? All of this is, ofc, to say that I’ve adored your series of the horsemen so far and would go absolutely rabid for some insight on some of your design choices<3

My horsemen of the apocalypse! I will add the original commentary and some extras, less about the symbolism and more about what brought me to design them the way I did.

The symbolism is for you to chose, there is no wrong answer.

WAR

I can't bring myself to represent war with a cool knight. It's horror. War is a bound child crowned with shrapnel, tied to a wounded horse that is being pulled forward by unseen people.

I've read a handful of books regarding war. A lost quote said that it should be shown as horror, it should make generals vomit, it should make you sick. I haven't seen war but my family has.

It was the first horseman I've designed, and it was in my sketchbook for months (maybe over a year, maybe even more) before I had the courage to draw it. I was really scared about how people would react to a mutilated child.

Recommended reading: The Red Crown - Mikhail Bulgakov, a short story about a man coping with the loss of his brother in the war

FAMINE

Someone who lived thro a famine shared that their head was only occupied with thoughts of food. Famine consumes your mind. All animals were eaten. Neighbors gave their pets away cuz they couldn't do it themselves. People walked around town as if in a dazed dream, slowly

Recommended reading: The Last Witnesses - Svetlana Alexievitch, a collection of testimonials of people who were children when WW2 began. Some quotes below;

'''A cat! A cat!' Other children saw it and started chasing it. The educators were local habitants, looked at us as if we were insane. In Leningrad there were no living cats left...A living cat was a dream. Food for one month...We talked about it, but they didn't believe us.''

''During the first year of evacuation, we didn't notice nature, everything that was nature provoked in us only one desire - taste to see if it's edible. Only a year later I noticed the beauty of the Urals''

''I dreamt of catching a sparrow and eating it...''

''A candle burns and the shopgirl cuts the bread pieces. People follow her with their gaze. Her every movement...with burning eyes...crazed...and all that in silence.''

''People walked slowly through the city like shadows. Like in a dream...a deep dream...As in, you see it, but you think you're seeing a dream. Those sluggish movements...floating...As if a person walked on water and not on land.''

''In Leningrad there are a lot of monuments, but one is missing that should exist. They forgot about it. The monument to the dogs of the seige. Dear doggy, forgive me...''

I don't like talking about it. It made no sense to draw Famine with a horse.

PESTILENCE

Based on the notes of a doctor who said the most frightening thing about viral disease was how it didn’t frighten. People didn’t know or didn't care. They lived and spread until it was too late and they became another name on the record

The clothing being made out of shredding plastic is no coincidence; pollution is a form of pestilence too

Recommended reading: Notes from a Countryside Doctor - Mikhail Bulgakov. Roughly translated quote below;

''Ah, I verified that here syphilis was frightening precisely because it did not frighten. That was why I evoked that woman.* I remembered her with a kind of affectionate respect: because she had been afraid. But she was the only one!''

*Early in the chapter, doctor mentions a woman that appeared in the clinic with a letter from her soldier husband, where he wrote that he had syphilis and told her she should go to the doctor too.

DEATH

Recommended reading: Voices of Chernobyl - Svetlana Alexievitch. The Death of Ivan Ilitch - Lev Tolstoi

“Death is the fairest thing in the world. No one's ever gotten out of it. The earth takes everyone - the kind, the cruel, the sinners. Aside from that, there's no fairness on earth.”

Death is the only horseman that doesn’t need to mount their horse; they will reach everyone eventually. Who is the saddle for then? Open ended question because this one you have to figure out personally

Many people pointed out how the horse is a Clydesdale. Good eyes! I purposefully asked a friend to guide me towards what type of horses are the sturdiest and most-friendly looking. I drew the horse grazing. It's not injured, it doesn't gallop. It's grazing peacefully because life moves on.

This is the only design that had a painting serve as a base - The Reaper, by Alexey Venetsianov. Not much or nothing at all is written about, I saw it in a book. It is a literal reaper but it haunted me, as if it's portraying more than a person.

The choice to make it a woman was due to a book about a crematory (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Caitlin Doughty) that connected women to death because everyone born is bound to die.

Ahhh, I don't want to give it all away. It's fun to figure things out. About them all. From the enviroment, to the movement, to the horses themselves. Many people even mentioned details that I did not notice and didn't add purposefully that were so inspired and amazing. I truly mean that the interpretations of the public enrich the works even more than my own words. And it's an honor to share that work with everyone.

Thank you anon!

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Four horsemen of the apocalypse - death

Death is the only horseman that doesn’t need to mount their horse; they will reach everyone eventually. Who is the saddle for then?

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Are you going to do Conquest in your four horsemen series?

Great question!

Considering the amount of people that went ''pls don't forget Conquest'', ''what about Conquest?'' and ''will Conquest come to the party?'' I will likely design Conquest as well, as an extra, after Death

Don't worry Conquest fans! I won't forget it!