The first one was... eh, not that creepy in my opinion, but I don't get a lot of subtext when I read things.
The second one- oh Goddess, I was almost shaking. It was literally the scariest thing I've read since Parasite, and that's saying something. (Did I catch a Doctor Who reference there in paragraph 4?) Congratulations, and I can't believe you didn't win. Keep writing! Is all your stuff indexed somewhere that I can read?

I don't think I'm quite smart/knowledgeable enough to understand that first one. I think it's implying the artist made paint using human brains, and the paint produced imagination-born monsters?

I love the second one, though! The lead-in with the simple, common phrase as the title threw me way off-guard for what was coming. You did a fantastic job of communicating to the reader what was going on without ever explicitly stating it. The tone is horrifying, and you made excellent use of abusing the mechanics of writing to get the point across. Well done!