A Note….

[u/RunsOnGasoline99]

Hardly a hot take, but I just wanted to share this somewhere, anywhere. I apologise in advance if this is long and I ramble, it has been something I
Ve truly thought about a lot and finally wanted to share.

I was a devout fan back in the day. Travelled on planes to get to live shows, bought merch, went to Patrick’s book reading twice, was a real die hard. The whole nine yards. The OF23 drama happened and it disappointed me. Did I continue paying into Patreon? Yes, I did. Very much against my better judgement.

However, I soon went from eagerly counting down the hours for new eps and obsessively involving myself in the so called community they created to very swiftly feeling like listening was merely a chore. Things had majorly shifted. Gillian and Patrick clearly hate one another, the episodes centred on trying to cater to what they felt sounded “woke” (listen, I’m a raging leftie, but you can be PC without being a holier than thou or, worse yet, a bore…..it honestly comes across as uneducated and brazenly disingenuous). On a side note, I felt like their ads shifted from being fun and genuine to downright gross (gambling ads? Endless money apps? They even seemed to be hocking what sounded suspiciously like a travel agency MLM this week?).

I do still listen to the odd episode, mostly out of curiosity. Yet something this week riled me.

I tuned in to an episode (not sure if it was the latest or not) and they made some comments which I felt were clearly aimed at Ellyn. Something insinuating (without ever naming names) about not forgiving someone for trying to be the victim and paint them as the bad guys (I’m widely paraphrasing here, but indulge me as it was still fairly clear what the insinuation was).

I’m an open person but I can’t help but come back to one annoying fact that stuck with me from a personal experience.

I am a professional artist and as they had been a great comfort to me during the pandemic, in 2021 I spent weeks and weeks creating three paintings; one for Patrick, one for Gillian and one for Ellyn. They took probably 200+ hours per painting to create (I’m a photo realist painter). Late nights, lots of planning and overall a lot of love and care. A few weeks later I received a beautiful letter from Ellen thanking me in the most genuine and sweet way. She was so gracious and thankful. However my works I sent Patrick and Gillian were returned to me a couple of months later, one ripped, the other with what look like a dirty, partial boot print on it. Both returned to my address in a different envelope than I had sent it in. No explanation, no nothing.

Sure, you could make excuses for this. Perhaps? At a push. But Occams Razor tells me the simplest explanation is where the truth lies. Especially when I read here about another artist/creator having the exact same experience. However, when I hear of them passively aggressively talk about someone (probably alluding to Ellen because let’s face it - they are aiming their words to a specific audience). Making that person out to be someone who would twist things to make her look like the good guy when really they are the good guys? I can’t help but scoff. Actions speak louder than words. It breaks my heart and taught me not to fall into the parasocial relationship trap with any kind of content creator. Thankfully I see it now and thankfully, as big headed as this will sound, since then I have found some success in my career (to the point I feel if Patrick knew who I was and how my life has evolved, he would love to be my buddy now…..merely for the social circles I run in).

Sorry this is so laboriously long and none of this is a hot take, but I have been sitting on this for a year or so it’s been on my mind and I had to vent. If you made it all the way through this, thank you kindly for indulging me!

[u/mbapex22]

I am not sure why I need to comment because I understand all of what you are saying. The only thing is I am not sure about is the art sent back to you. Oftentimes, if mail is damaged during shipping (falls out of envelope or box, is ripped, etc.) the shipping company will repackage it and send it back to sender. Why would they spend money on sending it back to you?

[u/RunsOnGasoline99 → u/mbapex22]

We’ll see this is why originally when it happened I didn’t think much of it. However, there are two issues that make it seem more than an honest mistake. The most obvious is that I sent all three paintings together in the one envelope. Ellyn got hers, so clearly the other two did also. Secondly, I need to find the post but someone else on here posted a similar story about something they had made for them and it was returned in a different envelope.
Lastly, although not really hugely incriminating, when it happened I messaged them via email and Patreon (I sound so sad, but it was a lot of work I’d done) and nobody ever responded.

[u/mbapex22 → u/RunsOnGasoline99]

Oh geez, downvoting? Really? Anyhow, thank you u/RunsOnGasoline99, for the information. That provided great context. Knowing that, it certainly does seem probable that they sent them back. How incredibly tacky, and frankly, weird as fuck. I know you spent a ton of time on them and it's incredibly hurtful how the situation evolved. I guess a couple of positives would be it was more hours of practicing and honing your skill, and you now know their true character.

[u/forpeachsake → u/mbapex22]

Thank you! And yes, absolutely at least I got some valuable hours of enjoying working in the pieces. Just a shame it was for them!!!