I've been wanting to make this video since early 2025, after a really bad panic attack.

In these very dark times, we have to find the light within.
Reach out to one another, look out for one another.
Vote. Vote early, and get involved.

To see what the darkness has been allowed to become, we need the light. That's ultimately up to all of us to find, so we can see again.

©2026 Randall Kaplan

Over the summer I had a wild psychedelic experience. In a psychedelic vision I was able to see this blue deer that led me to a room of portals in this MC Escher like space with multiple twisting and turning crystalline stairways. Each one leading to a portal. I stepped into one and found myself in a vast, nighttime desert. It was so vast, so blue, with only the light of the moon to illuminate the space. It was there that I was able to convene with a chorus of voices that spoke to me in unison.

It was a very awesome and crazy experience that left me weeping afterwards. Not from fear or sadness, but from a feeling of belonging and the lament that other people can't experience this feeling. After that, I took all the elements from that trip and tried to combine them into a single illustration I have been working on bit by bit since this summer.

Decided to make my own cover art for an upcoming release after a few years of zero illustrations made. A bit of a weird process: Abobe Illustrator for the base skeletons from refs and drafts to Procreate for inking details to Photoshop for texturing and finishing touches. And I gotta say I forgot how much joy the inking part brings.

The first idea was to create only the cyberflute, but it felt quite empty, so after the course change I just tucked it in a corner not to fully waste hours of designing it.

And yeah I know the spines look like a stack of taco bell logos, don't at me. What do you guys think? Is it creepy enough for dark fairytale bass music?

Shout out to the song "Finally See Me" by Delilah Bon. It really accompanied me during the time this drawing was created. The song captures the feelings of frustration I can't express so wonderfully, hence I dedicated the name of this piece to the song.