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Fine Art Galleries > Vanitas > Vanitas 29

Graphite and colored pencils on Bristol board, 18.5" x 17", 2021.

This is a piece in which I did not use any typical vanitas object to portray the theme with (just like Vanitas 22). Instead, I used the background and its relationship with the figure to deliver the message. The background is an old corroded fuel tank I photographed while I was traveling in South West (probably in New Mexico) nearly 2 decades ago. The model looks sort of squashed at the bottom of the picture under the weight of this enormous metal object. She is not really smiling and there is a look of weariness in her facial expression. The shape of her arms forms a secondary frame inside the picture and locks in her upper body as if they were trying to protect her against the crushing weight of the decay.

This is a mixed media drawing. I applied colored pencil in the background first to “stain” the paper. Then I rubbed in graphite power on top before starting any detail rendering. I see an interesting potential in this technique and I am planning to explore it further in the next pieces.