Metamorphosis ex Tenebris
∞
Metamorphosis ex Tenebris ∞
Metamorphosis ex Tenebris
48 x 24 inches, acrylic on canvas
I found this canvas on the side of the road near 23rd and Douglass in SF. I waited for a while to make sure no one was coming out for it. Eventually, I realized the Gods wanted me to paint my way out of hell.
In an age when saints have forgotten their vigils and angels dare not descend, there whispered among the forgotten Orders a tale of the cocoon that grew in Hell. Not fashioned of silk, but of scarlet sinew, calcified sorrow, and the unspoken prayers of those long forsaken. It hung not from a branch of Earth, but from the gnarled root of a tree submerged in brimstone—a root fed by Lucifer himself, his laughter cracked like thunder and etched with memory.
From the chthonic dark, he stretched forth—not in rage, but in rite—and poured into the root a current of occult electricity, twisting down like veins of light into the sleeping form. The cocoon pulsed, dreaming of escape and of an identity that had never been permitted. Above, from realms neither heavenly nor damned, a sword descended—not hurled in violence, but offered in impossible grace. Forged before time in a furnace unknown, it split the chrysalis not to kill, but to crown.
And out came she—not a butterfly of innocence, but of ordeal. Her wings bore the wounds of her gestation: cryptic, stained, armored with sigils and veined with prophecy. She carried no name, only VITA—life—etched above her like a forgotten constellation, too old for gods, too dangerous for men. Around her skulls gathered, not in menace, but in awe. They had no tongues, no ears, no eyes—only the burden of having once perceived truth.
Beneath her, the trinity of silence stood sentry: Hear No Evil. Speak No Evil. See No Evil. But what of the one who is all three—who dares become?
And so the world turned, not knowing she had emerged.
Not knowing the blade had chosen.
Not knowing that Hell, at last, had birthed something holy.
Hear what it feels like to burst forth from a cocoon in Hell:
