Mythology has always tried to answer a society’s existential questions. By explaining our reality and trying to answer what will happen to us after we die, stories give us a sense of purpose and inner peace. Death especially has always played a crucial role in our experience as humans. We find it intriguing and terrifying. It’s the biggest enigma we will never know the answer to, at least not until we’re dead ourselves, and that’s if there’s even anything to figure out at all. Every civilization constructs myths about the afterlife.
Egyptians believed in an afterlife where the dead could enter once their heart was weighed favorably with truth and justice. If it didn’t, their soul would be destroyed. Greeks had the underworld, a dark place ruled by Zeus’s brother, Hades, and his wife, Persephone, who awaited their guests after crossing the river Styx. Christians believe in heaven and hell, one reserved for the virtuous, the other for sinners. These interpretations of the afterlife have been the subject of countless works of art throughout our history. It’s a universal motif, not unlike representations of love.
Joshua Drew is an illustrator who works under the pseudonym Darker Days. The protagonists of his drawings are skeletons who feel love, desire, passion, and experience feelings of frustration. His work fuses love with death in intriguing illustrations, done mostly in black ink, some featuring bright colors. Although the concept might sound grim, the drawings have a life-affirming effect on the viewer. Joshua’s sarcastic humor and sensitive insights into our deepest desires and fears give us a sense of catharsis. We remember death is always present, but that’s precisely the reason why the act of falling in love and expressing it sexually is so important to us.
His art is both erotic and explicit but the phrases of love pronounced by his characters are sweet and passionate, or funny and filled with double entendres. Even illustrations that feature a skeleton having sex with a fully fleshed human being, maintain a level of tenderness or humor that makes them appealing and funny.
Besides his original scenes, he also takes frames from popular films and transforms iconic characters into his living skeletons. Movies such as Fight Club and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are featured in his work, for instance, Joel and Clementine lying on the ice holding hands. Fans of the originals will love this, as these words of love and heartbreak increase their power when pronounced by skeletal representations of the characters.
The artist’s work has become very popular. On his website, Joshua explains that he’s managed to make a living from selling his illustrations as well as prints, vinyl stickers, shirts, cups, and phone cases. It’s easy to see why he’s reached this level of success. His work is fresh and original, since it takes two timeless themes and cleverly combines them with humor and sensitivity.
If you’re interested in Joshua Drew’s work, you can follow him on Instagram or go to his official website.
If you want to see similar works, try these erotic ones that portray heartbreak and some for people with a dark sense of humor.
