ANGELIKA (2022)

Mixed media, acrylic, epoxy resin, gold glitter on canvas She did not fall. She chose to burn. In *Angelika*, two forces vie for dominance on the canvas without ever destroying one another; they merge, intertwine, and reinvent themselves within one another. At the top, swirls of steel gray, beige, and gold flow like cooled lava, aristocratic and restrained. Below, fire—blood-red, incandescent orange, and solar yellow—rises from the depths with an intensity that brooks no compromise. Between the two, a silhouette takes shape. Angelika. Neither angel nor demon, but something more complex, more real. A presence made of flesh and flame, of ashes and light. The cracked paint at the center of the composition resembles burnt skin, or earth parched by heat that has been contained for too long. A sphere of epoxy resin floats in the upper left corner, a cold moon, an impassive eye that observes without judgment. It alone remains intact in this world in turmoil. The golden glitter scattered across the starlit blackness reminds us that there is always beauty in destruction, that what is consumed leaves behind something that shines. Angelika is a faceless portrait—that of all those who have burned from within and chosen to turn that fire into light.