Conception – The Ascension Series.

patinated silver and gold leaf on card.
framed in a mat black frame with a black mat and Ultra Vue museum glass.
framed size 47cm x 51cm
Ascension Series of 5 paintings

This painting is the breath before birth—the sacred stillness where potential begins to stir. Conception is not simply about biological beginnings, but about that ancient and mysterious moment where spirit leans toward matter, where vibration thickens into form.

As I entered this piece, I surrendered to the unknown. I worked with silver leaf as my ground—an element I consider both lunar and mirror-like, able to reflect the unseen. But I didn’t want it to stay pristine. I introduced alchemical agents—chemical patinas and oxidizing compounds—to disrupt its surface, to age it, wound it, awaken it. The reactions became part of the message. The patination formed unexpected patterns, textures, and burns—just as conception, in its rawest truth, is unpredictable, sacred, and transformative.

The surface bloomed and bled with the energy of terrain—like a landscape halfway between star and soil. Rust, ash, and subtle crimsons emerged through the silver like forgotten bloodlines, ancient memories pressing through time.

I see this piece as the womb of the Ascension Series—the origin point. There is no distinct figure here, yet everything is becoming. Each mark feels like a whisper of the soul saying yes, stepping across the veil from ether into embodiment.

Conception is not quiet—it is electric. Elemental. It holds the chaotic poetry of all beginnings, made visible through the union of precious metal and corrosive process. In this liminal field, spirit chooses skin, and transformation begins not in light, but in the fertile shimmer of darkness.