Algea – The Pulse of Life

Algea (2023) is a painting about emotional inheritance — about pain that transforms, not through avoidance, but through presence. Part of the Transcendence Collection, this 72 x 48 inch mixed media work was named after the Greek spirits of grief and sorrow — the Algea — who were said to accompany war and loss.

The canvas is saturated with deep greens, inky purples, and muted reds — like wounds seen through moss and memory. The surface is textured, almost cellular, as if something biological is blooming from beneath. Gold leaf and metallic glints catch the light, adding moments of sacred reflection to an otherwise shadowed field.

I didn’t intend to paint grief. I intended to understand it. Algea emerged slowly, in layers, through abrasion, revision, and silence. Some marks were buried. Others refused to disappear. In the process, I realized that the painting was less about loss and more about what survives it.

The piece draws subtle kinship with Wangechi Mutu, whose work often fuses organic forms, mythology, and layered surfaces to explore healing and hybridity. Like Mutu, I see the body and emotion as interwoven — never static, always regenerating.

Algea doesn’t wallow. It listens. It carries. It reminds us that sorrow, when acknowledged, can root us more deeply in being.

As part of the Transcendence Collection, this painting holds space for transformation through darkness. It is not an escape. It is an honoring.