#I love the art too Ough it’s so cool

[chibishortdeath]

oh yeah since you're a huge Simon fan,

what are your thoughts on Super Castlevania IV?

Ooooooo I love CV4 so much, I’ve replayed it a lot : D. I’ve gotten pretty close to being able to beat the whole game in one sitting really fast lol. I think the only big gripe I have with it is that Dracula doesn’t get to have a second form/curse of man battle which is kinda sad. He just kinda gets Dracula part two but with a spookier face and not the cool demon dragon thing. But I guess Simon’s theme playing kinda makes up for it in a way so uhhhhh yeah. The music is absolutely banger in this game ong, I want the vinyl of this soundtrack so bad (TwT ). The art is so pretty toooooo, the pixel art is great agdjshwg. I love how much this game likes the color green.

I see it as a reimagining of the first game and lump them both together with X68000/Chronicles as the same part of the story if that makes sense? And not the English manuals or anything cause I know that CV4 was marketed as a sequel when it’s actually not in Japan 💀💀💀. Especially since later games take elements from it (SotN with Slogra and Gaibon and stuff) so it seems to be accepted I guess.

[hollowsart]

-SLAMS HANDS- BEST GIRL ERI!!!!

She uses her immaculate size and strength to lift up her friends and family

she’s so sweet and I just???? Can I PLEASE be your friend?? PLEASE???

[dragqueenpentheus]

had a monetarily bad con and nOW MY BILLS ALL CAME AT ONCE AND MY DIGITAL SALES WONT COME IN TILL WEDNESDAY. AND SO MY ACCOUNT IS IN OVERDRAFT BY LIKE FIFTY BUCKS. GOD. THAT CON WAS ROUGH.

[lavendarsapphic]

kissing all the sdv girls rn

[bloob-art]

IT'S THE BABY GIRL. Absolutely love her. She's beautiful, she's cool, OUGH <3 I can't wait for this chapter. Behold my new ALT, Kate being my main. A fellow Acearo headcannon. They are best buddies too cause I said so. The quote up there is from a Bratz YTP I was watching while doing this- Just a few doodles for her uwu trying to break art block. Haven't drawn humans in a hot minute

[potato-lord-but-not]

Your art makes me so fuckING EXCITED!! it makes me excited for LIFE AND ALL THE STUFF I'LL BE ABLE TO DO!!!

I'll keep getting better and better at art!! And I'll get to BE MYSELF EXACTLY HOW I WANT!!! I know you're not meant to wish your childhood away but right now as a teen my life doesn't feel like mine, it feels like it's my parents and that does make me upset and angry sometimes, but then I see you make pride stickers and art of yourself and art of your partner and I can't help but think about the fact that I'M GONNA GET TO DO THAT!!! I'M GONNA GET TO LIVE AS MYSELF AND WEAR WHAT I WANT AND HAVE AS MANY NAMES AS I WANT!!! I can absolutely COVER my face in googly eyes and ridiculous makeup!!! I can have a mustache!!! And I can have THE COOLEST FRIENDS EVER WHO LIKE THE PERSON I AM!!!!

I LOVE being alive and I LOVE ALL THE POSSIBILITIES IN LIFE!!! There are of course limits but that's when my creativity THRIVES!!!! I love life and being queer and having gender be WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT IT TO BE!!!

This is all over the place lol I'm sorry but I'm having a good day (I've been having a lot of those lately) and I was looking outside at trees in the sun (one of my favorite things!!) And felt the overwhelming need to gush about how much anticipation I have for life!!

Keep making the cool stuff that you love!! I'll keep making stuff too! And keep yelling about stuff you love because it's ACTUALLY ONE OF THE BEST THINGS EVER!!! and I'll keep yelling and hey! If ya want, try sticking googly eyes on your face! I'll keep doing that! Have a good day! (And a lot of good days!!) And I'll keep doing that!!!

ough I have nothing intelligent to say about this I’m actually melting into a puddle as we speak,,,,,,,,, everyone keep enjoying art and being queer and living life I love you all you beautiful freaks

[airborneice]

can we talk about how @the-hilda-librarians-wife is just out here writing poetry in the tags like it’s no big deal

@sketchbookweek Day 3 - Sun & Moon / Family

you know I had to bring up my sketchbook kid Mattie for this one. in my mind this is like…impromptu midnight storytime bc someone woke up the entire household and now she’s almost settled no one wants to get up or go back to bed

(Kaisa has become a little more comfortable with openly doing magic by this point, partly because of reconnecting with Tildy in season 2 and partly because no matter how shoddy her spells come out, they never fail to entertain her kids, especially her youngest. Kaisa does the best stories in this house. no child can resist magic floating pictures)

[vacantfields]

Aoen has been mer-ed(?) I made him a mimic octopus! (If it wasn't clear, Chase was a ribbon eel) including Chase and Aoen, I plan on making two eels and two octopus.

I hope you feel better about your art soon!! Thank you for being such a good artist! Again, you're amazing!!

(Hope I'm not bothering you too much. If you would like me to stop, I will)

Still, have a wonderful day/night!

OUGHHHH MY GOD HE LOOKS SO FUCKING COOL OH MY GOD SKJGHKJSHGKSH DUDE IDK WHAT TO SAY!!! OH IM IN AWE!!! you are not bothering in the slighest im so honored u wanna turn my sillies into creatures... OUGH I LOVE THESE UR TOO KIND AND OGHSKJGHKJSHGH GOES CRAZY RUNS AROUND

[revalition]

OCT 5 - CONCEPTUALIZATION

Understand creativity. See Art in the world.

sorry so few drawings in today's (and the really lazy colouring job) I'm very tired and wanted to still get it out. I love love conceptualization!! I'll draw and colour you properly some day.

I drew him with legs in my banner (still a WIP, I need to colour it...) and I'm not sure what I like more... definitely don't ever expect tons of consistency from me haha

Alsoooo... I think I'm going to do mondays off instead of sundays so I don't split up the 4 groups across the break. and volition's realllly gonna need that extra day, I love that guy way too much

anyway! as usual tons of quotes and comments under the cut! conceptualization has sooo many amazing ones, it's too hard to limit it to 29 :(((

PALE PALE PALE

actually me the second I heard about the pale. I've spent a likely unhealthy amount of time contemplating it. I did a science project on the possible ways the Universe will eventually end when I was like 15 and only gotten worse since then, I live for this stuff. It fascinates me endlessly

ily conceptualization and volition. I had to suffer through the unbelievably embarrassing ordeal of the failed poetry the first time, when conceppy stopped it the second time I immediately fell in love.

NO why is turning him down an option??

:(

this was so vivid and sad

the whole revacholian nationhood quest is so delusional... but conceptualization is going to embrace it anyway

art cop my beloved

of course he'd find it artistic... it's definitely a statement I suppose

much love for this, conceptualization comforted me into accepting the sorry cop, like... 30 minutes into my first run

don't be sorry honey I always want to hear your artsy thoughts

Yes this is the poetry fail again... this was actually incredibly painful. Also first day of my first run, walked out of the Whirling over to the lorries. So many moments of 'what did I doooo' over picking 1 INT...

Almost every fail ends up with the failing skill giving you really really bad advice, I love how this time conceptualization is just. desperately trying to stop you from continuing. and he can't!! it just gets *worse*!! I'm not including the rest of the poem, I don't want to even look at it. conceptualization ily for trying to stop the horrors...

hehe conceptualization hates improv

ough I love this one. referring to Le Retour.

un jour je serai de retour pres de toi...

actually me as soon as the hyperfixation stops

silver stars melted down...

ough I love the melancholy of a lot of conceptualization's comments.

this one especially. it's so simple, but deeply, deeply sad. the authors of this game were definitely no strangers to grief.

I love when the skills are silly

I love these, they just make my heart happy

mm... true

hehe

I gain a year of life every time anyone mentions harry's blue soul. ily conceptualization

that's it thanks to the evil screenshot limit :((( I hit it so fast too. I'm going to actually die on Volition day. Maybe I can just type the quotes instead of screenshotting them... there's no character limit hehe

running through conceptualization's other language names through google translate: unconventional, concept formation, abstraction

I like these. Most translate directly to conceptualization, but the ones that don't are always cool.

ough I love conceptualization a lot. I barely heard from him my first run, but maxed him out the second. Him and inland empire and shivers are my lovely poetic boys.

Volition trusting Conceptualization is also extremely!!! important to me. as far as I remember, conceptualization isn't identified as compromised either. He just wants art. Even tells you to "lay off that love stuff, if you can" at one point. I'm very fond of him.

[churrorat-art]

hii i saw your art on my feed and i thought it was really cool!! i also saw you liked spearmint so.. have some spearmint :)

sorry if you don't want art in your ask box, feel free to ignore if you don't!!

OUGH!!!!?!??! We are mutuals now in my heart.

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!! Looking at ur blog. YOU DRAW THEM SO SILLY SKUNKLY!!!sSO SOFT!!!

Thank you sm! I think ur art is cool too! I would never ignore!

[elizakai]

UH OKAY DUST X REAPER AND/OR SWAPFELL X NIGHTMARE? AHEUUEHA

omfg i love you i’m jumping at the chance to look at dust x reaper i better see some art somewhere in this fandom OUGH ok

well, dust’s died like how many times now, lets just assume they’ve ENCOUNTERED one another yeah?

⬇️⬇️⬇️

reaper feels bad for him. he isn’t even allowed to actually die, just experience death over and over, only to be thrust back into this torturous cycle.

imagine dust dying in the hall, he’s stumbling away and he just. sees the grim reaper. and he’s like oh shit. well then. *gets thrown back whenever they decide to reset*

reaper visiting a lot because, well, he’s dying a lot, he’s probably gotta. imagine a scenario where they actually get to talk. but its so so brief, dust is never dead very long, and reaper probably shouldn’t interfere otherwise…

(he’d also, be witnessing the deaths of the aus other residence, which. interesting. wonder what they have to say about things. and what reapers response may be.)

(of course this is assuming they interact after death, which i think makes sense with common depictions of the reaper at least)

dust probably chalks him up to a vision he’s having, or hallucination, when he dies, but maybe when he’s given more time, they can have broken up conversations.

like hey, mid sentence he gets thrown back into the land of the living, but HEY! next time he dies, just pick up the convo like nothing happened. “Anyways as i was sayin-“

Another thing to think about is just how SIMILAR dust is to geno. and most of us are afterdeath junkies i think💀

like, dust and geno have VERY similar motivations and go to similar lengths (think of error even)

i think of reaper could come to respect genos desires and motives, he’d feel the same towards dust. reaper always strikes me as a really lonely person, and dust is too for obvious reasons.

i’m imagining a scenario where reaper is just. real bored of just watching. so he starts like following dust around so he can see him. and dusts like ah. cool. fucking phantom ass to add to the list. i’m imagining reaper telling him like no, i’m very real dude, and dust is like haha ok, lemme touch you then

…for obvious reasons he can’t let him touch him💀💥 but that would probably make dust assume he is in fact a hallucination. but that’s ok. he’s an ODDLY nice hallucination.

maybe he even reminds him of the river person🤷🏽‍♀️

anyways, reaper just having convo, dust finding he likes it, it’s pleasant chatter to listen to, and then he’s like damn i really am sick, why am i so attached to this weird ass hallucination

(i’m just idea dumping so hard i apologize.)

reaper would find his conviction kinda cute, if not slightly frustrating. like bro, out here denying my existence, wtf💔

i wonder, if reaper can touch him when”” when he’s in the space of death, temporarily.

that would be cool :,))

if reaper doesn’t show up for a while and comes back dust just, getting happier, he’s got someone to talk to again that isn’t a dead friend or relative he’s killed multiple times.

i imagine dust has seen “death” enough times that, in life, he can “see death” (reaper)

they gain this weird little affection for eachother ok💔 a selfish part of reaper hopes dust will always get reset…so he can come talk to him

but part of him is also disgusted by the hope that he’s able to just. be laid to rest. what can be done yk?

YOU COULD MAKE THIS SO ANGSTY WHERE LIKE the anomaly suddenly

stops!

and dust is actually on his way to wherever you’d go when you die

imagine, reaper just. guiding him away to whatever afterlife or lack thereof, carrying his soul away and having to let him go. no more coming back.

cries

or yk, we can imagine a scenario where dust gets out of the loop, and they continue to see eachother and have their weird little friendship (?)

dust is like “i’ve seen death, he’s over my shoulder as i walk, whispers in my ear as i lie awake at night. death awaits my presence, and i deaths. i’ve felt the touch of death, and it was unbearably sweet , a feeling i will forever long for”

*horror from whoever he’s speaking to*

meanwhile reaper is just like, telling stupid jokes in his ear and giggling over someone’s stupid outfit, gossiping about the other gods and making dust look crazy laughing at stupid shit

i wonder if reaper could potentially see dusts phantoms, it’s a fun idea. they aren’t REALLY there, but dusts magic is kind of projecting them i imagine, and reaper has seen them when they die. i just imagine him shooing them away for dust, and he’s like naw man pay attention to me instead *slutty little strut*

you could interpret the way death even works a million different ways and have a bunch of different potential even. what if dust were to die and reaper…DOESNT guide his soul away. what if he keeps him. maybe dust wants that. they could “be together”.

maybe there’s an afterlife, and reaper is able to cross the gap. who knows. lots of potential.

they both have hoodies >:3 idc if that doesn’t mean anything

i feel like reapers dark humor would almost comfort dust lmao, it kinda lightens the load for him. reaper can assure dust that their souls are…ok. they’re at peace.

reaper is just happy to feel so validated and seen all the sudden

he can help dust understand how life really works

ironic huh. the essence of death being the thing that gives you a will to live.

just imagine in a time he’s died, reaper not being able to help himself. he just comes in for a hug. and both of them need it so badly. when dust is alive, he CANT touch him.

they both think about that hug a lot <//3

[izel-scribbles]

FINALLY FINISHED MY RELISTEN YIPPEEEE I HAVE THOUGHTS (not including the new ep sadly)

oh my goodness. john's s1 voice. i know everyones always talking about it but omg. he sounds like a used car salesman or something i love him

THE BUTCHER BOTH INVOLVED IN ONE OF THE FIRST EPIS???? not by name obvi but "he died quite gruesomely" i completely forgot about that ghsdnflkj

im gonna be honest i skipped ahead to part 6 last relisten but hearing the first few again was so cool

"more writing in polish" wow!! it me!!!! polish!!!!

s2 was. wow. ough. fjaslkdj.

that was actually when i painted the kiy,i was just relistening to those during art class

the vibes were immaculate

godddd i forgot how painful part 18 was

and 19 for that matter

i can't even begin to coherently word my emotions about part 20

arthur's poem. the poem. but also "i am clawing my way towards a better version of myself!" aSLKJDL

john and lilly john and lilly joHn and lilly jaohnd alihdl ully

i also skipped 21 + 22 last time because i couldn't bear the yellow parts they made me too sad BUT i soldiered on this time around

yellow,,,, he sounds like john when he is curious about humanity

like all the cruelty and intimdation drain away and he just wants to know what evrything means

LARSON SLDKFJLSK I NEED TO HIT HIM WITH A SEMI TRUCK I NEED TO RIP HIS ORGANS OUT I DESPISE HIM WHY DOES HE HAVE A SOUTHERN ACCENT. HE ONLY GOES TO MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW YORK. URFLKS I HATE HIM

KAYNE TOO BUT THATS ANOTHER THING

s3 in general had me shellshocked-soldier-memeing in the hallways at school

part 24 i thinkw as when arthur said "i killed myslef for a voice in my head. do you know how mad that sounds?"

AND HOW YOU CALL IT MADNESS KEEPS RANDOMLY CROPPING UP JSLKDJ

ughhhhh part 26 i can't

i was bawling in the bathrooms (in spirit)

and 27,,,,, 28,,,,,

THEN PRELUDE <3333333

MY GORGEOUS WIFE

I HADN'T HEARD HIS VOICE IN TOO LONG JSLKJFLKSJDLKJLKJDLK

why must i be this way about the middle aged irish serial killer. cmon now brain what the hell

anyways. i need to draw lilith too

scratchhhhhhhh

oscar. hmm. might be understanding why everyone loves the sad little gay priest more and more

he has his charms i suppose

john during s4 slkfjl;jlajsdl;fjasrigofecrjaksmlfekjs

relate to him a normal amount sure mhm

NOELLLLLLLLL I LOVE NOEL hES SO EVERUTHGING

GODDDDDDD

i would do unspeakable things to be the waitress he calls doll in one of those episodes

i need him in ways that are detrimental to feminism /ref

i will never be normal about part 40. both my wives dying in the same episode

i had a whole chunk of dms where i raged about how much i loathe, abhor, and despise kayne for that

MALEVOLENT HAS SO MANY MARVELOUSLY EXECUTED CHARACTER DEATHS. THE BUTCHER WAS NOT ONE OF THEM. IT DID NOT MOVE THE PLOT FORWARDS WHATSOEVER. WHY??!?!??!?!?!?!?? HARLAN WHEN I FUCING GET YOU

why would you kill our coolest antagonist??????? literally never getting over him :(((

the part 41 divorce got me ripping my hair out on the bus

trying so hard to keep a straight face when all i want to do is scream and throw shit

john doe trans allegory my dearly beloved <333

part 45..... hrngslkjdf

so so so excited to hear 46 you guys have no idea

[abyssalzones]

i am so bad with words but ough. you get it. YOU GET IT!!! fords story is SUCH a compelling narrative on abuse and the recovery afterwards. i don’t think i realized how impactful it really was tho until a) reading your tbob review google doc (you articulate yourself so well and i loved hearing your thoughts on it!!) and b) those pages in tbob where the pines talk about bill (the pages where Mabel is dipping bill in guac like a chip lol). ive been in the gf fandom since i was 13 and bill was always always my fav character (who i was definitely not unhealthily obsessed with) so hearing that tbob was coming out was like a dream. i then read tbob and before I got to those pine pages i was kinda thinking like the rest of the fandom like “oh hehe these guys are exes” and then i read those pine pages and especially the part where ford says that he doesn’t have to feel shame anymore talking about his experience with bill… really hit me?? and then the sudden tonal whiplash when bill starts talking again hit me harder and something just clicked. like oh! bill is an abuser. oh my god. bill ABUSED ford. like it wasn’t just “omg hehe divorce <33 omg they’re exes <33”. like bill manipulated and used and abused this guy who’s been so insecure his entire life about something he couldn’t help and has always felt excluded and was so so desperate for praise and love. and for the first time in my stupid ass brain it clicked at just how awful and monstrous that is. so yeah. idk you probs don’t care and I’m sorry for filling ur inbox with nonsense lol but tldr you are one of a few people who actually grasp and understand fords character and treats his story about abuse with the care and respect it deserves. so… thank you? i love your art btw.

— sincerely someone who relates to ford pines a little too much

NO I DO CARE. I CARE A LOT

honestly asks like these make me feel like articulating myself is actually worth it in any capacity. I don't go into writing for the sake of changing people's minds since I know a lot of people likely won't be swayed by some stranger's essay on the internet about a cartoon, so it feels like I'm asking to get super frustrated if I think of it that way. but then every once in a while (mainly now, this is a very new phenomenon to me) I get to hear feedback like this and it shocks me every time. it's awesome to me when people go on a whole character arc about a piece of fiction because it reassures me that even in this little microcosm instance people often just don't have a moment where it clicks for them, and it could just take some time or the right set of circumstance. idk. probably a little melodramatic but I think it's cool + I like when people are good readers!

anyway, thank you!! this really made my morning :D

[isa-ghost]

Could I mayhaps have some hc!philza headcanons? Could be him in his hardcore, or how his time in hardcorr affects him now maybe? :D

OUGH YES.

So these will be operating off the theory that qPhil is hcPhil with his memory fucked up by the Federation. I'm gonna aim for "pre island, this is how qPhil was" but we'll see what happens as I actually write these LOL

What if I call these Pre-Dilf Edition in the masterlist SKFJSKFJSKFHF

10/10 would read the hardcore deity set I did recently to go with these :D

qPhil headcanons masterlist

He either had a flawless sleep schedule (early to bed early to rise ass mf) or no sleep schedule at all (spending 3+ nights hyperfocused on smth). It made for a very loopy Phil sometimes, which his murder of crows very much enjoyed

This man can fit so much joy and whimsy in him. Everything is awesome, everything is a breathtaking work of art and everything is decades of rich history to uncover. He loves life, he loves the passage of time, he loves teaching the murder about what he finds & restores

That's his main hobby besides being a survivalist, restoration and an informal form of archiving. He sketches the builds, takes notes on the deities, adds his own little touches to each place to make it a little prettier

He could fly for hours. Sometimes he'd fly aimlessly into late into the night, too immersed in sight-seeing and chatting with the murder

He had little altars in Flowerfall, Nether Void & Greater Spawn Islands for OO, BE, and Rose respectively. He'd leave little shiny things, trinkets that made him think of them, offerings like cooked fish or blaze rods or flowers in little offering bowls. Just as a nice, more direct way of giving them thanks for creating something so beautiful and allowing him to restore it to its former glory

He fucking loves swimming and fishing and hanging out at Endlantis, he'd just very aggressively avoid the cave that is EK's tomb. It was extremely haunted, he never got good vibes down there

He sometimes considers making his own remarkable build as a sort of "I was here, I too am a mark upon this history" but looks at his house and is like "mmmmbetter not" (he's an idiot, he could 100% build something cool, just probably not on the scale of the builds the gods have created. He'd probably create it for Goddess of Death, not even himself 💀)

Obligatory gapple addiction mention. It didn't start because of the murder, but he definitely used them as an excuse to further indulge once he started devoting eating one to the crows who'd been in the murder for a year. He never really had a reason to quit, or worry about the addiction, so he never experienced negative effects from it. Gapples aren't exactly harmful, just.. tinged with just enough magic to infect the brain. (He never experienced withdrawal misery on QI bc the Feds wiped his memory so his body had no idea it should be having a bitch fit =) )

Semi-related, he loved the days where he and the murder lacked the motivation and focus to do restoration things so they'd just fuck off in a random direction for ages and go on loot sprees. Nothing more exciting than hunting for more god apples :D

He started out liking fishing. The murder got too obsessed and it became the bane of his existence. But he loves the murder, so he does it anyway. Besides, he wouldn't trade chill talks with them for the world. :')

Btw he doesn't know this but it was equal parts the Ender King & the Feds ripping rifts between the universes that got him caught and taken to QI. EK didn't plan for that to happen, he just wanted to escape to a new reality to find a vessel to come back to power. Which is why once Phil was on the island, EK went "Fuck it, I'll use that asshole since he's not only compatible, but from the same plane of existence"

Mobs never scared him much (except Enderman) despite the fact that they were very dangerous and he's a survivalist. He was practically a mob whisperer, it's how he trapped trophy ones, made certain farms and why he was 99% fearless when farming charged creepers. QI has so many mobs he's never seen in his life that his chill instincts are suddenly like AAAWTFWTF

He never felt truly alone despite being the only humanoid. He felt like Rose was always with him, very rarely OO, and the murder ofc. He could understand them and he'd talk to them all day every day. Not only that, he had pets like Pog and Champ and there were quite a few times he'd humanize inanimate objects, which scientifically helps keep you sane in isolation such as survival. He always felt like he had Something to socialize with

That said, he IS still a bit weird socially on the island. Socializing with humans is way different than crows, other animals, gods, and objects.

Btw Ian is God of Chaos (a lesser god like Goddess of Death) and other mods like Birder, D3 & Wolfy are notably larger or perhaps a different species of corvid that hang out among the murder :D

[korkietism]

So I finished half life Alyx but the gnome is too aware. My thoughts?

..

It was FUCKINH beautiful. Genuinely a work of art. I cannot believe it took me this long to watch it. It has the classic hlvrai humour mixed with that gorgeous existential dread. It’s really well written with a cool build up to the end. I loved the gnomes, I loved gordyx (that’s Gordon alyx to me) and it was so fucking funny. If any rtvs or even hlvrai fans haven’t seen it yet- PLEASE do so. It’s genuinely so good.

@wayneradiotv fantastic work. Truly. I know I’m going to end up watching it all over again soon. (And that ending- Ough-)

[sunnibits]

ok took me ten years to explain this of course and naturally I could not find a concise way to explain it at all but I still desperately need to share bc I can’t stop thinking about it

putting it under the cut bc it’s stupidly longer than it needs to be but I have a lot of feelings

the only way I can make this even remotely short is through a green text-esque bullet point format so bear with me ok

- walking along the streets of Florence with my family

- a bunch of artists have set up displays on the street to sell their paintings to tourists

- one of the displays catches my eye because of this really fascinating use of neon paints in scenery paintings

- I overcome my social anxiety in order to tell the artist that I think his paintings are beautiful

- he smiles and thanks me as expected, but to my surprise he gives me this sort of curious knowing look and says, “Can I ask you why?”

- excited because I actually CAN tell him why and very much WANTED to talk about it, I explain to him how I noticed his cool use of neons and how I’ve never seen anybody use neon paints like that before

- he smiles at me, nods and sort of gestures to himself as if to say “yes thank you, that’s my huge big brain 😌” and I say bye and move on from him, feeling very warm and fuzzy

- sitting on some steps eating gelato still staring at him and his display from behind, thinking about how touched I was by the interaction and the question he asked me

- decides I can’t leave without buying a painting from him so I go back with my family to look at his display again

- he greets me again and immediately asks me if I’m an artist too, I beam and say yes :)

- he says he could tell because of the way I talked about his art, and talks about how people always tell him his paintings are pretty but nobody tells him why which is why he asked me

- he then proceeds to point out to me how he uses the neon in his pieces, showing me all the little details and excitedly talking about why he likes using it, and of course the whole time I’m just grinning like an idiot and also totally nerding out over art with him, exchanging conversation and observations as he explains his techniques (genuinely very cool and interesting to me and I understood exactly what he was talking about!!!!)

- (I don’t normally like being close to strangers but in that moment I was just like “I trust this random man with my life”)

- I must also say he is just smiling at me and being very kind this whole time and just so genuinely enjoying getting to discuss his art :’)

- once we’re done talking I buy a little painting that I can afford from him (which I desperately want to show y’all rn but can’t because it’s carefully packaged and needs to survive shipping) and he gives me back five of my euros after I pay him and tells me to “go buy a coffee for your family”

- we say goodbye and pleasure doing business with you and walk away, and I am just so stupidly fucking giddy and heart-warmed and happy

I just like… y’all….. this random older man, a total stranger who doesn’t even share the same first language as me, a legit fucking professional painter who’s probably been an artist for decades, talked to me and recognized me as being like him. idk if that sounds cheesy or whatever and maybe it seems insignificant but like???? he recognized me, a random ass amateur teenager, as an artist without even having to ask??? he took me seriously and showed me his art technique and shared his enthusiasm with me and I got to genuinely enjoy and understand and respond to that???

just like… the connection of artists, across generations, across languages. the way he looked at me and spoke to me like he really saw me. something something interactions with strangers that stay with you forever. the way art connects people. the way being an artist changes how you look at things. idk how to explain it but just. ough. ough.

made my entire day, week, possibly my whole month. I’m so glad I was brave enough to talk to him.

Y’all I just had the most heartwarming interaction with an artist I’m gonna cry