In a series of events in constant motion, life is at best unpredictable, but with all roads leading to one inevitability. Death is the one friend who walks alongside us running a parallel path til the point where ours cross with his. To be feared and dreaded as the usher, sweeping us through the door who’s threshold lies the one last true unknown. An ultimate truth and our guide perhaps should be viewed through a different lens than the one we are all predisposed to. So how do we view death, and more importantly if death was in fact a singular individual tasked with the ferrying of all creatures into singularity. Do we embrace him, curse him, or pity him. It is this last sentiment that propels my query. To explore the myth of death personified, as a being of great importance, power, and diligence, yet simultaneously lonely, sorrowful, and curious. The image I portray death is taken in part from the Tibetan and Japanese Buddhist traditions of hungry ghosts. Creatures known as Preta, or Ghaki, are compelled by an unyielding hunger, to consume everything, with huge empty stomachs that despite their efforts are never full. Tortured, insatiable beings forced to play out their karmic evolution. Yet what if death was a “hungry ghost” but was one without malice, perhaps curious, playful, kind even from a certain perspective. This series of images inspired by the work of other artists such as Michael Reeder, Barry McGee, and Steven Miesel, explores this theme, and the examination one does when examining their own life and it’s particulars. A passage of time, events, people, expressions, and symbols, and when our friend death comes how is he represented, and how do we greet him.
