Palimpsest of Flesh [pencils & pastels on ribbed paper]
October 18, 2026 at 5:04 pm,
1 comment
![Palimpsest of Flesh [pencils & pastels on ribbed paper]](https://site-2864898.mozfiles.com/files/2864898/blogimages/1200/IMG_4301-18e94a14.jpeg)
We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, this sensation of being a person being an impudence and a trumpery created by biochemical concatenation. Most of the time we manage to ignore this spectral fact, but there are moments when the bandages slip and the machinery underneath is exposed in all its grotesque, raw absurdity." From The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti
"A plague of all cowards, and yet we are all mortal, frail flesh and blood, subject to a thousand diseases, corruptions, and calamities. What is man? A tempest tossed soul, a mere bubble of breath, a phantom of dust, harboring within his own frame the very seeds of his ruin that sprout and bloom in secret long before the eyes are blind to the world."
The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
Linen-bound and crowned in stone,
A pale saint rests upon his throne.
No eyes to weep, no tongue to pray,
Where thought has turned to calcified clay.
From sever’d neck and fractured hand,
New tendrils bloom like desert sand—
A quiet, visceral, holy dread,
Where life takes root among the dead.
The work operates within a strict tenebrist tradition, reminiscent of late Mannerism and Northern Baroque portraiture. Emerging from a void of impenetrable black space, the figure is rendered in three-quarter profile, establishing an immediate, uncomfortable intimacy with the viewer
The Bifurcated Sign of Blessing: The right hand is raised in a gesture that parodies classical Christian iconography—specifically the gestus benedictionis (the gesture of blessing) or the pantocrator pose. However, the fingers do not taper into nails; rather, they erupt into raw, bud-like growths, turning a symbol of divine grace into one of biological mutation