Envoy From the Beginning
Every painting has a story I tell myself while I'm making it. This is the one behind Envoy From the Beginning (2023, 19 × 24 in).
The envoy
She comes from the beginning: the world at the origin of all existence. She was sent with a message, good news, but she lands somewhere she never expected. A world in total chaos, where she's forced to fight. The vibrant orange shape to her left is the trail she left coming in.
An upside-down world
Normally heaven is above and hell is below. Here, hell is above and hell is below. There's nowhere safe to look.
The sword
It hangs in midair above her. She knows death is close at every moment. She just never knows when the reckoning comes.
Eight portals
All around her are eight portals, each one a different possibility. None of them are in order. That's the trap: too many doors, no direction.
The evil eye
The master of disarray. It wants chaos for the pleasure of chaos itself. It's shapeless on purpose. It never shows its real form.
The dog and Conscience
The first thing the envoy notices is the dog, busy hauling every bone into his own realm. Next to him is Conscience, as shocked as she is. Nobody knew the dog was capable of that much greed.
The call
Near the bottom there's a small gleaming eye. Next to all that chaos you could almost miss it. That eye belongs to the highest realm, the one that truly sees everything, even in the middle of chaos. It's where the envoy was sent from. The moment she arrived, every line of communication went dead.
So she has a choice. Fight to balance chaos and order in this realm, or shut every other door and focus on the one thing she was sent to do: deliver the message.
There's more tucked into the corners. I'll leave those for you to find. Look at it next to what's happening in the world right now and see what you see.