Here’s a rich, evocative description you can use for Nail Halo:
⸻
“Nail Halo” is a raw, visceral mixed-media portrait that confronts the viewer with the collision between faith, pain, and personal reclamation. At the centre stands a silhouetted figure formed through cascading drips of black, green, teal, and white paint—an almost melting presence that feels both fragile and defiant. The face appears partially obscured or dissolved, giving the figure a haunting anonymity that invites projection and memory.
The tears that stream down from the figure’s eyes are made from fragments of a cheap, broken fake-pearl necklace. Their plastic shimmer becomes symbolic—precious in their placement yet intentionally “worthless” in material—reflecting how emotional weight can cling to even the most mundane objects. They read as artificial tears made real through trauma, ritual, and artistic transformation.
Encircling the figure is the “halo”: a ring constructed from torn pages of your old youth Bible, washed with luminous neon yellow and pierced with nails. The pages wrap around the head like a fragile scripture-crown, both protective and wounding. Each protruding nail feels like a mark of pressure, expectation, or injury—turning the traditional halo of holiness into something tactile, physical, and almost violent. The mix of sacred text, construction materials, and bright illumination blurs the line between reverence and rebellion.
At the centre of the chest, a small cross made from folded aluminium can becomes a stark focal point, grounding the piece in the language of devotion while also suggesting how faith is constructed, reconstructed, or endured.
“Nail Halo” becomes a portrait not just of a figure, but of a lived psychological landscape—where belief and pain overlap, where childhood symbols take on new adult meanings, and where broken, ordinary things carry the weight of a personal mythology.
Size in inches H:35.5 W:23.5 D:0.5
