The New Wine

Acrylic and chalk pastel on canvas.

36x48x1.50"

The title & distressed text are from The Brothers Karamazov, specifically a tale about the redemptive power of a single onion - that word is still visible, though highly obscured, in the middle of the canvas.

The full tale describes a wicked woman doomed to hell whose guardian angel finds a single good deed to her name: giving an onion to a beggar. This simple act of grace was what I sought to capture. Like a seed, this sentiment was sown rough and buried beneath distressed paint, becoming the fertile ground for it to grow in the subconscious.