"Angel of Death"
(acrylic painting on wood veneer, 30X40, 1999)
"If we were all like angels, the world would be a heavenly place."
Anonymous
"If one looks closely enough, one can see angels in every piece of art."
Adeline Cullen Ray
Many years ago I was talking to a friend of mine telling him which tattoo I was about to get. My tattoo was a word that I thought symbolized what I was about. My friend warned me to be careful, because he believed that the word I was about to tattoo on my body would define how my life will go in the future. Almost a decade later this conversation made me think that perhaps what I paint has influence on my life as well.
When I was painting the "Angel of death" I took the image for the painting from my own photograph. Only recently I realized how eerie my choice to depict myself as the angel of death really was. For somebody my age I've had an unusual number of people close to me die. Several of them died in my presence. Pets and even random animals have died in my arms as well. A number of times when I wasn't home my pets waited for me to come home before dying.
It's a lot to handle for one person and witnessing so many deaths weighs heavily on my soul, but I'm also extremely honored that God thinks that I am the right person to be present when somebody departs into a better world.
