"From Angels to Insects": Reimagining an An Original Idea

It began as an older abstract piece from a time when I was working almost entirely on instinct—layers, movement, texture, without a fixed destination in mind. For a long time, I didn't know what to do with it but then I decided to get a little more experimental with it. I didn’t want to discard it, but I also knew it wasn’t finished. So I chose to rework it, letting it evolve rather than starting over. What you see now is the result of that evolution.

The final product, a depiction of the devine's futile struggle against the mortals.

The original depiction of the painting, as you can see the "angel" a bit more profoundly.

I titled the piece "From Angels to Insects", a phrase that resonates with me on multiple levels. Many people recognize it from Papa Roach’s song, which captures a raw sense of falling away from something idealized into something more grounded and human. But the phrase itself has deeper roots. In literature and philosophy, it echoes a long-standing idea about the fragile boundary between the divine and the mortal, the elevated and the everyday. That tension is at the heart of this painting.

Visually, the piece is built around contrast and motion. There’s a strong radial energy pulling outward from the center, almost like fractured wings or bursts of light. The palette leans heavily into slate blues, charcoals, muted whites, and flashes of rust and earth tones. These colors push against each other, creating a sense of struggle but also momentum. The thick, layered texture gives the surface a physical weight—you can almost feel the resistance in the paint.

At first glance, the central form might feel celestial or angelic, but it doesn’t stay pristine for long. The shapes splinter, the edges roughen, and the structure becomes more fragmented as it moves outward. That’s intentional. The “angel” here isn’t a literal figure; it’s an idea—a symbol of order, belief, or something higher striving to exist in a chaotic, physical world.

In my depiction, the angel appears to be losing.

As the composition shifts, the textures become denser, more grounded, more tactile. What was once elevated begins to resemble something earthly, persistent, and resilient. Insects, after all, survive everything. In literature, they often represent insignificance or discomfort, but they also symbolize endurance. In that sense, this transformation isn’t purely a fall—it’s an adaptation.

Reworking this older painting felt like the right process for that story. Instead of layering toward perfection, I layered toward tension and complexity. Each pass of paint wasn’t about correction, but about discovery. The painting became a conversation between what it once was and what it wanted to become.

"From Angels to Insects" is ultimately about transformation—about how ideals change, how beliefs shift, and how something once divine can find new life in a more grounded form. There’s struggle here, but there’s also energy, movement, and persistence. Even as the angel fades, something else takes its place. And that continuation is where the optimism lives.