This Is Now Bone of My Bones and Flesh of My Flesh
"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." This ancient phrase, rooted in the story of creation, echoes through this work both in its symbolism and its visceral materials. Housed within a handmade pink wooden box—suggestive of flesh, inner life, and vulnerability—this piece speaks to the eternal struggle of selfhood and relationship.
The oil painting inside, rendered in shades of red, pink, and white, mirrors the colors of flesh, blood, and inner turmoil. In the portrait, my left hand claws at my own face, a gesture of both destruction and reclamation—an action that evokes the self-imposed violence of breaking free from past relationships. The torn sleeve at my elbow symbolizes the wear and tear of emotional labor, perhaps the sacrifices made in pursuit of creative or personal freedom. My gaze is fixed on a curious object: a seemingly human bone, attached to the canvas. This bone can be seen as a representational nod to the biblical account of Adam’s rib, the piece of his own body taken to create Eve. In this context, the bone is not merely a relic of myth but a symbol of the sacrifices made in the creation of others and in the formation of relationships.
In this work, the bone is no longer removed from Adam; rather, it is removed from me, the artist. I become both creator and created, god and mortal, defining my own flesh and bones in this process of artistic self-revelation. This act of creation is not passive but intentional—a taking back of the bone, a reclaiming of identity that was once lost to another. The rendered bone next to the jars of fat, which were collected each morning as I consumed bacon while painting the portrait, speaks to the duality of body and spirit, of flesh and bone. The fat, housed in four glass apothecary jars, symbolizes the ephemeral, transient nature of flesh. Fat is the nourishment, the waste, the byproduct of the physical body—a reminder of mortality, consumption, and transformation. As it accumulates, day after day, the fat records the slow passage of time and my own cyclical engagement with the body, both through creation, consumption and perhaps even depression.
The four uniform compartments within the structure allude to stability and form. The number four, traditionally associated with material completeness and structure (four walls, four elements), anchors the ephemeral nature of the fat. The sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4 also alludes to truth and an outcome avoided. This work is also about the balance between the eternal and the transient, the skeletal structure that remains after the flesh fades, and the slow, repetitive destruction and renewal that life and creation demand. It is also deeply personal, capturing the aftermath of a dysfunctional relationship with a female partner—one where the flesh was given, and the bone, now reclaimed, signifies autonomy and the painful beauty of self-creation.
Through this work, I explore the cyclical nature of self-repair and the constant negotiation between body and spirit, man and woman, creation and destruction. I use my own body as both subject and metaphor for the fragility of human relationships, drawing on the ancient archetypes of flesh and bone to reveal the deeper struggles of autonomy, identity, and the toll of sacrifice. This is the story of bones reclaimed, flesh consumed, and the eternal quest for selfhood through art.
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This Is Now Bone of My Bones and Flesh of My Flesh
Oil, acrylic, spray paint, pencil, and sculpture on reclaimed canvas with glass vitrines and rendered fat in box frame
20 x 21 x 4 in / 50.8 x 53.3 x 10.2 cm
2022
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Vivid Lucidity I: A Self Portrait Exhibition — ABA Gallery - Atlanta, GA - 2022