I paint
death —
with a smile.
My work is a visual form of alchemy that aims to tame the macabre — painting the profane and turning it into the profound. I take my own existential dread and reshape it into something approachable, allowing pain to be a friend rather than an enemy.
I take the icons of society's fears and reimagine them through a lens of warmth, working in aggressive textures and earth tones. From the same source material I shape friendly totems — 3D-printed characters and physical talismans designed to help me, and others, face our own fears.
I'm doing my own form of creative archaeology — diving into the collective unconscious for the monsters we all hide. My inspiration lives in the unseen and the often unspoken: the shadow side of the human experience, the things people usually shy away from. Death. Chaos. The unknown.
I find resonance and deep connection in the primordial, ancient symbols and the insights I've gained from plant medicines. The scary is my raw source material.
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Inquiries — exhibitions, acquisitions, commissions, talisman requests:
tijobear@gmail.com