Skull painting and a short bit about how understanding death brings life

I have a progression for this painting below my thoughts on this painting : ). Please skip to the bottom to see the progression if you’re not interested in my ramblings on the concepts of life and death.

The imagry of skulls intrigues me because when I was a child I found them to be so unpleasant and frightening. They do have a somewhat menacing look, but it was more than that. They bothered me because in my mind they represented death and that scared me.

For most of my life I tried not to consider death because of how it made me feel. At some point I realized that while being overly fixated on death is pretty obviously unhealthy, swinging too far in the opposite direction and being unable to consider death and the affect that the concept should have on one’s life is also unhealthy. One of the things that helped me to come to terms with my feelings on death is Seneca’s essay ‘On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It’

With this painting I was trying to represent how death is a part of life and the life cycle. One does not exist without the other and to begin to truly understand either concept you can’t separate/compartmentalize them.

I learned through ‘On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It’ and considering these concepts, that in order to truly live my “best life” it is vital to consider and understand death. Through doing this I gained an understanding that frees and motivates me to live a better life. Death helps to put in perspective how precious life is. Ironically, in this way, death, the concept I was so afraid to explore, really brings life.

Once again my progression is pretty rough as I’m not a formally trained or very experienced painter, but I hope you enjoy it : )