Sculpting Trauma into the Dark World of Bellumaera

Interview with Donavan Larson

1. Please tell us something about your background and your art journey so far.

I started sculpting just October October 2025 literally jumping from zero experience to mixed-media creatures using polymer clay, epoxy, hardware, and found objects like bones and moss. No hobby phase; I went straight to submitting for international publications because that's how my life works high stakes, fast pivots. Within six weeks, I landed spots in Novum Artis Issue 012 and Goddess Arts Magazine Issue 21 while on worker's comp from an injury. Visceral Elegance Studios (@urge2conquer) formed around that urgency, building Bellumaera a dark world of corrupted relics and hybrid monsters born from mental health battles I've fought my whole life.

2. Describe what a normal day looks like as an artist.

Mornings start with my almost-three-year-old daughter we're both early risers then I hit the studio for sculpting, sanding, painting, and wiring armatures. Afternoons mix family time, job duties since I just returned to work, and filming TikToks/Reels of the process for Instagram and portfolio submissions via CaFÉ or Biafarin. Nights are deep work: resin cleaning, detailing fungal idols global mag features in months.

3. Can you tell us more about the theme in your art and your inspiration?

My art explores visceral beauty from mental illness, compulsion, and trauma creatures and relics that feel like swamp altar finds, fusing body horror with dark surrealism. Everything ties to Bellumaera: an eternal war where the Black Maw Prophet twists souls into horrors via his mask shrine, battling Shaman Supreme Bryant Treemurmur's tree soldiers and fungal guardians. Inspirations hit from everyday rituals (bongs as idols, gardens gone wrong), horror anime, and my own head turning self-destruction into totems you feel in your gut first.

4. How does your art life impact other parts of your life?

Art reframes my chaos into campaigns structure amid parenting a toddler, injury recovery, and now back to my job as a beverage compounder. It steals sleep and social time but gives purpose: my daughter watches me build worlds from scraps, learning resilience firsthand. Financially tight on worker's comp and budget supplies from Michaels/Amazon, but those international pubs validate stacking Visceral Elegance into "one of the greats." It's not balance; it's fuel every late-night armature wires my survival wiring into something galleries notice.

5. Could you share any difficulties and hardships you had to face in life and how or if you managed/overcame them?

Life's been nonstop survival: injuries landing me on comp, parenting through mental health crashes, jumping mediums without formal training because "waiting" isn't an option. Early pieces like "Barbed Silence" poured out that pain secrets tearing you apart,i but skeptics called it bragging when I shared pubs. I push through instinct: experiment wildly (resin dips, airbrushing, moss textures), document everything, submit relentlessly. Work returns tomorrow, but those mag acceptances? Proof hardship forges the edge I'm still here, sculpting harder.

6. Tell us about your best experience in the art world so far.

Waking to Goddess Arts Issue 21 acceptance as Novum Artis Issue 012 confirmation hit two international features locked before returning to work. Self-taught, six weeks in, Ypsi basement studio to global pages? That validated skipping hobbyist days for pro hustle. Seeing my Bellumaera creatures wrinkled hybrids of flesh, wire, decay in print felt like the Black Maw Prophet finally losing a round to my Shaman Supreme. Pure fire; now galleries take calls seriously.

7. Share your worst experience in the art world.

Getting hit with "brag much?" after posting those pubs folks missing the vulnerability of going from injury leave to emerging artist sans safety net. It stung because sharing milestones is connection for solitary makers, not flexing. Online noise (Reddit self-promo flags) amplifies isolation, but I reframed: critique sharpened "Barbed Silence," turned doubt into diorama details.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urge2conquer