DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION GALLERY
get out of jail FREE
ancestral technologies, INC.
Get Out Of Jail Free (Ancestral Technologies, Inc.), Valerie Caesar, 2026.
My life changed the day I realized that the power to communicate with realms outside of this one was not only possible, but necessary, if I didn’t want to be crumpled up and tossed around like flotsam or jetsam, bobbing and ducking under waves, and crying and thrashing and drowning. Indeed, I was flailing my arms quite desperately when the revelation became clear. I’ll keep the details between me and my gods.
But the upshot is that like Alexander Graham Bell or Garrett Morgan, all the inventions that that we know and love, and that allow us to communicate, are manmade. However, their impact is often cosmically and divinely felt. Imagine the thrill of anticipation as the phone’s ring echoes across the miles of ocean and earth that separate you and a loved one. If you’re old enough to remember the cackling cacophony that was the dial-up static announcing your pending connection to the nebulous world of the internet, God bless you. We were pioneers of the digital age, unaware of the wonder we’d discover on the other side of a wall of meaningless 0s and 1s — unaware that it was us, in the future, waiting for us.
Similarly, I believe our ancestors wait for us at the end of any kind, style or type of janky technology we extend to the skies. They’ll pick up a paper cup, punctured and tethered with string to the other one in our clammy hand, and whisper to us the keys to our futures. But what if they had a whole business — an entire industry built around this kind of communication, and what if it was called Ancestral Technologies, Inc.?
Making Bible Paper (design play), Valerie Caesar, 2026.
From an illustrative perspective, Get Out Of Jail Free (Ancestral Technologies, Inc.) represents my growing fascination with the digital drawing of objects that look like they can and have lived in the physical world. This is due to my increasing skill as an illustrator to bring to textural reality the things that live in my mind’s eye. It’s really exciting. This attached image is a design I was messing around with, just to work on the technique for creating a scrap of torn, worn paper.
Scy-Fi Thriller (design play), Valerie Caesar, 2026.
I had the headshot of this playwright (Mckensi Scy Pascal) from another project, and she’s such a beauty and her name so unique that I couldn’t help but borrow it for my homework. (I also used her image on the Get Out Of Jail Free card.) You must know by now that I love a good pun, so I worked her name into a faux magazine layout, featuring her as a breakout talent. I have no idea what her actual writing style is but I needed to make this pun work, so for the purposes of this, her genre is sci-fi, LOL.
Anyway, the highlight of this design for me is the added scrap of torn and worn manuscript I was able to create, along with the faux magazine fold. Tell me that shit doesn’t look real! Is it live or Memorex?
Get Out Of Jail Free (Ancestral Technologies, Inc.), detail, Valerie Caesar, 2026.
At any rate, imagine one of the ancestral technology inventions is as simple as drawing and throwing down a card like from out of an old Monopoly game — one of the ones from the Community Chest that always arrived just in time to save your ass from a fate worse than death — bankruptcy, poverty, and the loss of your freedom. I imagine that last one would be particularly distasteful to one of my ancestors. As such, this work explores the Ancestor Chest, and the idea that the possession of this (amongst other) card(s), granted to the holder by their ancestor, would absolve one of any colonial punishment heaped upon her, regardless of her supposed culpability.
I know for a fact that my ancestors have bailed (and continue to bail) me out of oceanic calamities, both seen and unseen. For that, I am so, so very grateful.
Check out the video below, which features the behind-the-scenes making of this work, with all its glorious smudges, scratches and softly worn edges, in conjunction with the lyrics of Erykah Badu:
Didn't cha know, didn't cha know
Knew the toll, but I would not pay
Didn't cha know, didn't cha know
I said ya never know how the cards may lay
Similarly, Baldwin said, “Your crown has already been bought and paid for — all you have to do is put it on your head.”
FYI: This card is irrevocable, does not expire, and may not be transferred, except by divine will and the cosmic laws of descent and distribution.
A CLOSER LOOK
Watch this short video at the full screen setting to view the making of Get Out Of Jail Free (Ancestral Technologies, Inc.) in closer detail.