‘Kalandra’ 2024 Acrylic on MDF 20x30cm

When I began working on "Kalandra," my intention was to create a piece that felt both primordial and deeply personal. The choice of a small, intimate scale (20×30cm) on a rigid MDF plate was deliberate; it forced a concentration of detail and emotion, making the figure feel monumental despite its actual size. Using acrylics allowed me to build layers of texture and color, creating the visceral, fleshy tones that dominate the piece.

The central figure is an embodiment of the cyclical nature of life, a creature of paradoxes. I painted its skin to be cracked and dry, like a riverbed at the end of a long season or parched earth. This texture is meant to convey not just immense age and endurance, but also the idea that its own vitality is being drawn out to nourish its surroundings and the new life it bears. It is simultaneously a mother, a monster, a prisoner, and a deity. Its lower body and left arm are dissolving into a network of roots, physically anchoring it to the earth. This represents being bound by one's origins, by heritage, and by the inescapable pull of the past. There's a profound weight and immobility here, a sense of being consumed by the very ground that gives life.

In stark contrast to this rootedness, the upper body strives upward. The growths from its back and head are not just grotesque; they are branches, antennae reaching for the sky, for knowledge, for a higher state of being. The expression on the creature's face is key to its nature. It's almost neutral, yet it carries the immense weight of time; it is tired and deeply weary. The eyes are large and dark, almost a void. They aren't malicious or sad, but rather lifeless and hollow, like ancient wells that have seen countless cycles of birth and decay pass without judgment. It is the gaze of a being that has become a passive conduit for existence itself.

The most visceral element is the infant, which isn't held but rather grows from the creature’s own body. This could represent the next generation, a continuation of the cycle. The umbilical cord is a crucial symbol here. It's not severed; it's a conduit that snakes over the mother-creature's arm and plunges back into the earth. The child, in chewing it, isn't just feeding from its parent, but directly from the primordial source, the very soil its parent is becoming.

In its right hand, the creature holds a heart, freshly torn and still pulsing with blood. This wet, vital organ is a stark contrast to its own dry, cracked flesh, symbolizing the raw life force that continues to beat at the center of this cycle of decay and rebirth. It is the core of emotion, vitality, and sacrifice being offered up, the blood that anoints the soil and feeds the roots.

The color palette is fundamental to the piece's atmosphere. The background is a maelstrom of visceral reds and oranges, the color of blood, womb, and sunset. It's the primal soup of creation. Cutting through this bloody haze is a bright, yellow-white light from behind. This light can be interpreted in several ways: as a divine presence, a moment of enlightenment, or the harsh light of an uncaring universe. It illuminates the scene, casting the figure in a divine yet tragic glow.

The name, 'Kalandra,' is layered with meaning that speaks to the piece's central paradox. At its root, it's a Greek name meaning 'lovely one' or 'shining,' which creates a stark, almost tragic contrast with the weary, monstrous figure rooted in a bloody landscape. This initial irony then connected for me with two other sources. The first is the Norwegian band Kalandra, whose music carries a sense of ancient folklore, melancholy, and immense natural power. The second is the Calandra lark, a bird of the sky, which further deepens the duality: a creature of the earth named for something beautiful, shining, and free.

Ultimately, "Kalandra" is my meditation on the savage beauty of existence—the inescapable connection between creation and decay, the past and the future, the physical and the spiritual. It is a portrait of life itself, in all its messy, bloody, and sacred glory.