// Objects

Totems
& Talismans.

// The practice

The paintings have a physical sibling practice — characters pulled out of the canvas and built in the round. Two scales, one project.

A talisman is small — made to be held in your hand. A totem is big — built at the scale of a person, made to be stood in front of. Same demons, different distance.

Both are pulled directly from the visual vocabulary of the paintings — crowned heads, skulls, hands, halos, the figures with arms half-raised between worship and surrender. The current translation on the table: a figure from Three Angels, below.

// The current translation

Three Angels prototype, 3D-printed, 2026. One of the figures from the Three Angels painting, printed in gray resin and finished by hand. The round eyes with triangle pupils, the zigzag grin, the bones and serpent and the small keypad at the throat are all pulled straight from the painting's body, halo included in the model. Still a prototype, not yet cast. Same demon, out of the frame and into the hand.

Old Gods New Machines series. Printed, cured, then worked over by hand; the black-and-white stage in the strip is the hand-finishing in progress.

See the painting →

Digital 3D mesh of the Three Angels figure in the modelling software — teal default-color geometry with a halo floating above the round head, triangle pupils in circular eyes, a zigzag collar, and the bone, serpent, and glyph markings sculpted into the open torso and legs. — 01 · digital mesh, halo on

Sections of the Three Angels prototype curing on a wire rack inside a Wirastar dehydrator: the round gray resin head and glyph-marked leg pieces laid out under the branded steel panel. — 02 · curing

Raw 3D-printed prototype of a Three Angels figure standing on a white studio table: gray resin humanoid with round eyes holding triangle pupils, an elongated nose, a wide zigzag-patterned collar, and an open torso showing bone, serpent, and heart markings with rows of small glyphs running down both legs. — 03 · raw print, front

The raw gray Three Angels prototype held in hand directly in front of its source painting, the three haloed and horned figures of the Three Angels canvas visible behind it. — 04 · in hand, with the painting

The Three Angels prototype mid hand-finishing, held up in the studio: body painted black with the bone and serpent chest markings picked out in white, glyph text running down the legs. — 05 · hand-finishing

The finished Three Angels prototype standing in daylight against a white wall: body painted black, gold triangle pupils in the round eyes, the zigzag collar cut in silver-grey, the open torso carrying the white bone, red heart bar, and pink serpent, and the glyph rows down both legs picked out in white, red, pink, and yellow. — 06 · finished

// From canvas to character

The Apophis talisman, end to end. Same character as the painting's orange figure with arms raised between worship and surrender — pulled out of the canvas, modelled, printed, and finished by hand.

One object. Five stages. About 35 × 18 × 47 mm at the finished size — small enough to hold in your hand and look back at you.

See the painting →

Apophis 3D mesh model in a slicer — teal default-color geometry, raised arms, horned head. Measured 35.6 × 17.6 × 47.0 mm. — 01 · digital mesh

Raw 3D-printed Apophis figure in grey resin, mid-finishing — still showing print artifacts and a patch of unsanded surface. Sitting on cardboard on a workbench. — 02 · raw print

Finished painted Apophis prototype, front view: orange body with raised hands, black triangle markings on hands and feet, purple horned mask face with yellow eyes. — 03 · finished, front

Finished painted Apophis prototype, back view: orange body, raised hands, purple horns rising from behind the head, on a wooden tabletop. — 04 · finished, back

Painted Apophis prototype held in hand above its source painting. Orange body, purple horned mask, raised arms. The Apophis painting visible underneath with its orange demon figure, dollar building, and asteroid imagery. — 05 · in hand, with the painting

// Where it stands

Two characters have made the trip out of a canvas so far. The newest is a figure from Three Angels, 3D-printed and now finished. Before it came the hand-sized Apophis, the first talisman prototype, finished by hand. Both are studio pieces.

The talisman editions and the life-sized totems are both still ahead — this is the direction, not the inventory yet. What follows is where it's going.

// At scale

The totems are bigger than the hand. The same characters that live inside the paintings — the crowned heads, the skeletons with money in their teeth, the dollar-sign chains, the figures with arms half-raised between worship and surrender — pulled out of the canvas and built at life size.

In wood, metal, and reflective surface. Objects you don't hold in your hand but stand inside and in front of — the polished face of the work giving you back your own.

They are built to be encountered alongside the paintings in exhibition — so a visitor doesn't just look at the fear but walks up to it and meets their own reflection in it — and, for the right collector, acquired as monumental sculpture. Painting on the wall. Totem at the door. Same source, different distance.

The thesis stays the same: the profane faced honestly becomes profound. The demon you've been carrying is the demon looking back. Meet it eye to eye.

// The talismans

The talismans are the hold-in-your-hand pieces — the small characters, finished well and released as limited editions of around 300 per character: collectors' objects priced for what they are. The figure you keep within reach while the painting you love hangs across town in someone else's room. Death, small enough to hold.

Only the Apophis prototype exists so far. When the first edition opens, the studio list below hears first.

// Stay close

studio@tijo.art

Exhibition opportunities · studio visits · talisman edition list · totem sculpture inquiries

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