Conjuration
4.5in x 10in dip pen and india ink on paper.
Conjuration is a continuation of my reflections on human experience and understanding. As our species has evolved across time, the way we interact with world around us has changed. Grief, pain, government, religion, science, and philosophy are all means by which we express what we know, what we don't, what we feel, and what we want. It is through these drawings that I explore these themes of experience.
A human skull enveloped in a cloud of smoke rises from an illuminated bowl in front of a mossy stone wall.
This piece in particular deals specifically with grief and death. How do we feel about death? What do we think happens afterward? Should we be afraid? Happy? Apathetic? How does it affect us when we lose a loved one? And does our understanding of death mean for our species as a whole? Attempts at contacting the deceased is a practice that traces back before recorded human history. For good or ill, it highlights a constant fascination people have had with both death and what may come afterward. It has also operated as a means of grief, control, power, and understanding among many other things. Death may never be fully understood by the living, but it will be marveled at forever.
This piece was created with a dip pen and india ink, looking to famous figures in illustration like Gustave Doré who pushed the boundaries of what was possible with line art and ink.