Oil on canvas, each panel 20" x 24"
Painted during my time in Texas, this modern triptych reinterprets La Santa Muerte through vibrant color, layered symbolism, and everyday objects. Each piece stands alone yet connects visually and thematically: mirroring the complex relationship between reverence, mortality, and ritual. Together, the three panels form a personal altar: an offering to transformation, memory, and the quiet power of devotion in daily life.
La Santa Muerte Triptych, Panel I
This first panel introduces the symbolic language of the triptych through a quiet yet charged kitchen scene. A lemon rests near a sharp knife, evoking both the phrase “when life gives you lemons” and a sense of looming threat. The kitchen, a space historically coded as a woman’s domain becomes here a stage for ritual, survival, and power. At the center, a peeled persimmon offers a symbol of patience, transformation, and the hidden sweetness that follows endurance.
The palette deepens the tension: vibrant oranges glow against washed blues, embodying a theme of dualism: warmth vs. cold, flesh vs. steel, life vs. death. This interplay reflects the spirit of La Santa Muerte herself: the sacred and the profane held in balance. Painted during my time in Texas, the work reframes domestic space as devotional, making the everyday holy.