Your Secret Hug from the Dark
Most people see bats and think scary. I see them and think... cozy? Which probably says something about me, but hear me out.
The Moment of Inspiration
Everyone always shows bats with wings spread wide. Dramatic. Threatening. Like they're about to swoop down and ruin your day.
But here's what bats actually do most of the time: they wrap themselves up. Hang upside down with wings folded around themselves like the world's most perfect blanket. And there's something so... comforting about that.
Like they're giving themselves a hug. A soft, protective embrace that says, "The world is big and sometimes overwhelming, but in here, I'm safe."
I thought: what if instead of making her threatening, I made her comforting? What if she's not the monster in the dark, she's the friend who understands that sometimes you need the darkness to feel held?
The Creative Process
Starting from black gessoed paper, I wanted to capture that wrapped-up feeling. That sense of being cocooned. Protected. Held.
Her wings needed to feel soft. Blanket-like. Not stretched for flight, but gathered for comfort. I painted her emerging from infinite darkness — not escaping it, but belonging to it.
The challenge was making darkness feel welcoming instead of scary. How do you paint shadow that feels like shelter? (Answer: you paint it like home.) Her expression had to be peaceful. Content. The face of someone who's found exactly where they belong.
What the Artwork Represents
Nocturnally Yours is comfort with your own darkness. She's for the night owls. The deep thinkers. The people who do their best work when the world goes quiet.
She's permission to need solitude. To find peace in spaces others might find lonely.
To understand that sometimes being wrapped in darkness isn't hiding — it's healing.
There's something deeply nurturing about her presence. She doesn't judge your need for quiet spaces. She doesn't try to drag you into the light before you're ready. She just says, "I see you. This is safe. You can rest here."
Living with Nocturnally Yours
She works in spaces where people need comfort more than energy. Bedrooms where deep sleep happens. Reading corners where you disappear into books. Meditation spaces where the outside world finally gets quiet.
Her wrapped wings create this sense of protection that extends into the room itself. Like having a guardian who specializes in making sure you feel safe enough to truly rest.
Whether she's watching over a bedside table or creating calm in a study nook, she brings that energy of being completely, peacefully yourself in the hours when no one else is watching.
The Darkness Truth
Here's what Nocturnally Yours reminded me: darkness isn't the opposite of light. It's the space where light becomes precious. Where you learn what actually matters when all the noise falls away.
She's not hiding from the world. She's creating sanctuary within it. Making a space where being soft isn't weakness, where needing quiet isn't antisocial, where wrapping yourself up isn't giving up.
Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is admit you need gentleness. That you're tired of being "on" all the time. That you want to exist in a space where you don't have to perform or prove anything.
(Nocturnally Yours gets this completely.)
Nocturnally Yours is available as an original artwork, as fine art prints and bundle.
→ View the Original | → Shop the Print
Sometimes the most powerful embrace comes from the darkness that finally lets you stop pretending to be anything other than exactly what you are.
