6X6 oil painting on birch cradled wood panel.

Conquer the Grave came about as I was studying the meanings behind traditional tattoos I was struck by the similarity between tattoo meanings and memento mori still life paintings symbolism.
💀A symbol of our eventual demise. Momento Mori means “remember that you must die” in English. The sailors getting ol’ Jerry to tattoo them were all too aware of this. But…
🗡️ everytime they came home alive they had escaped the grim reaper’s grasp, which gave rise to the very common dagger through the skull motif in tattooing. I love this brave take on every day we don’t die.
💡you might wonder why I made my dagger a neon sign. Hey, valid. I love painting lighting situations, to “shed a light on things” or maybe it’s a “sign” that the sentiments of the past, while modernized are not dead. Both forms of art help us see our past and enlighten our everyday life.

This painting features neon black light reactive oil paints.