Ilvstrasi’s art makes the “weird, bizarre, and surreal” visions of a fever dream into a reality. The artist’s beautiful use of pointillism introduces audiences to nightmarish and fascinating apparitions like a “buttearfly” or an ear earring; you can’t decide if you should be unnerved or eager to see more of the curious and provoking visions.

Ilvstrasi, or Alvian IR, feels that home is a place where one feels completely understood and fully accepted “for whoever you are.” He shares that his understanding of being an artist came to him slowly over time at home where — as a child — he would copy a cartoon character from television and “modify it and go crazy with my imagination” to make it his own. As the years went by, he realized that his wild interpretations were more than just a hobby and that they were actually the pastime of a true artist.

Ilvstrasi enjoys creating hand drawn illustrations with a pen tablet and is inspired by “literally anything” around him. However, he is especially encouraged by the “father of surrealism” or Salvador Dali and admits that Dali was the “reason” that he pursued surrealist art in the first place.

Ilvstrasi also admits that he “rarely” evaluates his own work because he can be very critical and will agonize over every missed line or wrong color. However, he hopes to someday become a famous artist and understands that for it to happen he cannot create art for other people’s satisfaction but, instead, he must “make art for myself”.