Behind The Artworks: Ofnus - Time Held Me Grey And Dying (2023)
.jpg)
Admittedly, finding an artist for our front cover was an interesting challenge for us. We had a shortlist of established and reputable metal cover artists in mind to contact and had reached out to a few making some inquiries regarding commissioning some bespoke artwork, but as it turns out it was down to some fairly random Instagram scrolling that meant that we stumbled across RF Pangborn and his unhinged artwork. The man is a true visionary, producing some absolutely harrowing images that teeter between madness and beauty, wholly open to interpretation by whoever gazes upon them. He’s a very capable painter with a quite unique style, and that led us to think that perhaps approaching him to use one of his images would give us a different aesthetic to the forests, mountains, and trees approach that is typically associated with our genre. We say that whilst still being big fans of forests, mountains, and trees! We are from Wales after all…
In any case, Mr. Pangborn sells his artwork as physical copies directly via his Instagram, so we approached him regarding whether purchasing a physical would mean that we would be able to effectively license the image for reproduction as album artwork, and fortunately, he agreed. We had our eyes honed in on this particular image, “Anger, Rumination, and other personal hells of your own making” which just evoked pure and raw emotion. Emotion because it’s not for us to really pigeonhole what it looks like for anyone else, however, we felt it resonated with the hopelessness and world-weariness that underpins our music as a whole. There’s something very powerful and relatable from having a sole human in the throes of despair and exasperation as the centerpiece of the cover art. We’ve all been there at some point.
Beyond that, our guitarist also now has the prestige of owning the original artwork. It’s one thing to see a great piece of art in digital form on your screen, but it’s something tangibly different to have the genuine article framed in person.
We wholeheartedly endorse following RF Pangborn, and if you’re a fan, consider buying one of his artworks - they’re quite special. On a personal level, thank you Mr Pangborn for indulging us in using your artwork for our cover.
No hay comentarios