(48” x 36”) Oil on canvas 2016-2017

This painting reflects themes of death, stagnation, and the Saturnian influence of time, limitation, endurance, and karma. A large theme of the work is based on the astrological concept of the Saturn Return, which is a particular period in a person’s life occurring roughly between the ages of twenty-seven and thirty. This life stage usually brings significant changes where there’s emphasis on heavier responsibility and a reevaluation of one’s direction and purpose in life.

This piece features a young man lying down with a tense, uncomfortable expression on his face. The man is akin to a genie imprisoned within a magic lamp, which conveys entrapment and inertia. I also made a psychedelic waterfall spilling from the lamp where an anchor etched into his body like a tattoo binds him downward, symbolizing emotional and existential heaviness.

The unsettling, malformed entity located above the man is supposed to represent Saturn, the ancient Roman deity of time, harvest, and liberation. My depiction of Saturn manifests as the flowing green light all around, a formless entity that just so happens to adopt a fractured Mardi Gras mask with a Medusa-like headdress as his chosen form.

His goat horns contain various talismans and symbols hanging down related to Saturn in general. The tooth, in particular, was included to correspond with Saturn in astrology governing the bones in our body, which includes the teeth. It is also a bit of a morbid inside joke on my part based on his lore of eating his own children and keeping it as a souvenir of sorts. On the other hand, the broken hourglass sprouting black flowers symbolizes loss and decay and Saturn’s color of black, while the Ace of Spades beneath Saturn’s Shuni Mudra, a symbolic hand gesture associated with Saturn, emphasizes themes of death and transformation.

I wanted to make the entire environment filled with swirls and chaotic, phantasmagoric energy, emphasizing a reality without a clear beginning or end. Yet within all the madness, I felt the need to include a sense of hope. My depiction of this is an open door portal with white light shining through from the cosmos, implying the possibility of a higher dimension awaiting.

Whether this realm is either a literal or symbolic death that occurs remains intentionally open-ended. Personally, I would have it lean toward hope, implying that even in moments of extreme darkness and confinement, the potential for overcoming the impossible exists and is just waiting beyond the veil of our present reality.