Where The Image Stops Belonging To Reality
When I think about otherworldly drawings as visual gateways to imagined worlds, I do not imagine distant fantasy landscapes or fully constructed alternate realities. I think about a shift—something subtle, almost imperceptible, where the image stops belonging entirely to the visible world. Otherworldly drawings do not need to transport us somewhere else. They alter how we perceive what is already here.
This is where the sense of the “otherworldly” begins. Not in distance, but in displacement.
Folklore As A Parallel Layer Of Reality
In many Slavic and Baltic traditions, the boundary between worlds was never clearly defined. Forests, rivers, and thresholds between spaces were understood as points of passage rather than separation. Spirits, hybrid beings, and unseen presences existed alongside everyday life, not outside of it.
Otherworldly drawings as visual gateways to imagined worlds carry this same logic. They do not construct entirely new environments. They reveal layers that feel hidden within familiar structures. The image becomes a point of transition rather than a destination.
The Figure As A Threshold
In my drawings, the figure often functions as a threshold rather than a stable form. Faces may dissolve into botanical structures, bodies may merge with surrounding elements, identities may remain unresolved. This instability is not accidental. It reflects a state of being between definitions.
Otherworldly drawings do not present the figure as complete. They allow it to exist in transition, suspended between states. This is where the sense of entering another world emerges—not through movement, but through transformation.
Botanical Forms As Transitional Structures
Botanical elements play a significant role in shaping these images. Roots, stems, and petals create networks that extend beyond the figure, connecting different parts of the composition. In many symbolic systems, plants were associated with cycles, regeneration, and hidden processes.
In otherworldly drawings as visual gateways to imagined worlds, botanical forms act as transitional structures. They suggest movement across boundaries—between growth and decay, visibility and concealment, surface and depth.
Color As Atmospheric Displacement
Color contributes to the sense of otherworldliness not by exaggeration, but by subtle shift. Tones may feel slightly unnatural, combinations may resist direct association with reality. Deep reds, muted greens, and layered shadows create atmospheres that feel familiar yet altered.
Historically, similar uses of color appear in symbolic and religious painting, where color was used to separate the sacred from the ordinary. I work with this idea, allowing color to create a sense of displacement within the image itself.
Distortion And The Suspension Of Logic
Distortion is essential in creating the feeling of crossing into another space. Forms stretch, overlap, or lose clear boundaries. This disrupts the logic that usually governs how we read images.
Otherworldly drawings as visual gateways to imagined worlds rely on this suspension. When the expected structure breaks, perception adjusts. The viewer no longer looks for recognition, but for orientation within something unfamiliar.
A World That Exists Alongside Ours
For me, otherworldly drawings do not create escape. They reveal coexistence. The imagined world is not separate—it exists alongside the visible one, overlapping it in ways that are not always immediately clear.
This is why these images feel like gateways. Not because they lead somewhere else, but because they open something that was already present.
