Art is subjective, what’s beautiful to someone may be hideous to another — people usually tend to disagree on the matter. But one thing that a majority can agree on is the creepy stuff — art depicting things like scary faces usually have a universal reaction of fear.
That’s pretty much the response a painting shared on TikTok is getting right now as the artist, Gillian, even claims that the piece is “sentient and aware” before admitting that they are “actually scared of her.” But surely it can’t be that bad right? After all, it’s just a painting, a bunch of colors brushed onto a canvas, there’s no way it can cause that much fear. Well, perhaps it’s best to see it for yourself and form your own judgment.
Okay, there is definitely something off about it, but what would you expect from an account called gilliansgghost? It’s those wide eyes, the unnerving smile with the blood dripping down the face —did those eyes move at the end? Or was it just my imagination? The painting gives Ghostbuster 2 vibes — it’s almost on the same level as the painting of King Charles that was unveiled in May. I’m certain that thing is going to crawl out of the frame at night and burn the house down, it’s super haunted for sure, and there’s no way I could ever imagine hanging that up in my living room.
The comments agreed with Gillian, comparing their work to that of Japanese artist Yuko Tatsushima, whose creepy pieces might be recognised by Creepypasta connoisseurs. Others warned not to focus on the face lest they manifest a Tulpa — supposedly, these are entities that can take on any form, whatever they are, they certainly don’t sound like something you want to manifest. Maybe they should call the Ghostbusters, or better yet, call UPS, I hear they’re good at destroying paintings.
There are more creepy paintings
This isn’t the only creepy piece of art created by Gillian — one commenter pointed out that their pfp was even scarier than the painting from the original video. To be honest, I agree, the eyes seem even more piercing and the smile more unhinged.
A quick check of the TikTok account will be enough to fill your nightmares for weeks, with a whole gallery’s worth of haunted paintings that all look like they’re just itching to break out or put some sort of curse on you. It’s those eyes, there’s something uncanny about them, they’re too realistic.
On a serious note though, Gillian has some real talent, the paintings look awesome and the feeling of pure dread is a hard feeling to evoke from a still image, yet they’ve done it perfectly. Although I do think I may have spent too long looking at them now, I think I might have manifested a Tulpa.