Each stroke by Teddy Pancake brings us closer to the end of the world as we know it. He is building an empire from scratch, with coarse hairs, intense color, and a worn silkscreen. Pancake’s paintings are teeming with life—menacing, overwhelming, bizarre—that reveal a spectacular new brand of psychedelia, equal parts moving and harrowing. The creatures that live in his paintings will stay with you long after you are exposed.

Maybe not the first night.

Maybe not the second or third night.

But someday, when you think they have left you, they emerge from repression, reveal their teeth, and devour you.

You will enter Teddy Pancake’s world. His colorful, vexing toil with the human experience overtakes yours. I suggest you revel in the art while it’s still at arm’s length.

It will be back for you.

Bio by Sammi Skolmoski