Skull study n2

SKULL STUDY N2
Between the first study and this one, something shifted.
In Skull Study N1, the skull simply was — present, unembellished, being looked at with the full attention of an artist learning its structure. No adornment, no elevation, no commentary beyond the act of rendering it precisely. That was enough. That was the beginning.
But something in the studio would not let it stay there.
The crown arrived in the second study — not as a grand conceptual statement but as a quiet question: what if this skull had earned something? What if mortality was not the end of the story but a chapter in a longer one, and the crown was the mark of a life that had gone the whole distance? The question that would eventually generate nine full paintings and an entire body of philosophical reflection began here, in a small square canvas panel, in graphite and spray paint and Posca markers, on a background of purple and gold polka dots.
This is the moment the Memento Mori series became what it is.
A study is supposed to be preliminary — the work you do before the real work. But sometimes the study is the work, caught in the particular clarity that only exists before the artist knew what they were building. Skull Study N2 has that quality. The crown is still discovering itself. The series is still deciding what it wants to say. The conversation between mortality and celebration has just begun.
For the collector who wants the origin of it all — not the finished statement but the first question — this is the piece to live with.
30.5 × 30.5 cm · Acrylic, spray paint, glazing, Posca markers and graphite on canvas panel · 2024 · One of a kind Unframed. Signed, titled and dated on the reverse. Certificate of Authenticity included.