Anton Simanov

Anton Simanov is a philustrator, an illustrator who writes philosophy and a writer who illustrates it, and the creator of Percept Index, an ongoing chronicle of his exploration into consciousness. What began as scattered notes from meditation sessions and lucid dreams has grown into a deliberate practice of documenting altered states, threshold experiences, and out-of-body work, each entry paired with an original illustration. The work reads less like detached research and more like first-person reporting from the inner frontier, and it has two faces, like Janus: the writing records what happens at the edge of a threshold and what lies beyond it, and the illustration renders what the passage leaves behind.

The project is less about reaching final answers and more about building a record, a map drawn in real time as he navigates the strange and slippery territory of consciousness. Field Notes, the current center of the practice, carry one hard rule: each entry is written and illustrated in the same day. Every piece is made by hand, no AI, with a hand-carved relief frame printed on smooth Bristol and an interior drawn in ink and gouache. The hand behind it trained early. Anton entered the Catherine Palace Art Academy at age eight, and Percept Index marks the return of that hand after years of digital work.

Professionally, Anton is a Senior Web Specialist and web developer with a background spanning communications, design, and technology. He holds Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) credentials, applying Agile principles to the systems and projects he leads. He runs long distances every week, lifts weights in the early mornings, and keeps a steady rhythm of self-experimentation both physical and mental.

Anton lives in California’s Central Valley with his wife and two young children, where family, work, art, and inner exploration are not separate pursuits but parts of the same experiment of being alive and aware.