The imagery surrounding Grimes’s Miss Anthropocene – the musician’s fifth studio album, released in February this year – isn’t hard to miss, from the intergalactic visuals of her “Delete Forever” video to the “de-aged digital clone” she’s named WarNymph. Originally, though, the album cover itself could have looked very different.

Grimes unveiled the original Miss Anthropocene cover art in a recent Instagram post. “I polled a bunch of ppl and everyone said not to use it (??),” she writes in the caption. “But I wish I trusted my gut.” 

“I fucking LOVE this painting.” 

While the rejected image does share elements of certain WarNymph visuals – namely, supernatural avatars piercing the globe with a sword – it’s definitely a different vibe to the album cover that was eventually chosen.

“Maybe there’s a way to utilize it still,” Grimes adds.

In the caption to the post, she also drops the names of a few artists she admires, including the one that designed the cover in question. She often draws her own artworks, but she writes: “I also love commissioning and/or buying prints and art.” 

“It’s something I just got into this year. It’s a great way to support visual artists during the quarantine.”

View the post in full, and the original Miss Anthropocene artwork, below.