Long Covid Series: The Katabasis
These paintings emerged from the visceral, physical experience of my own Dark Night of the Soul. In that difficult first year of Long Covid, my work became a Katabasis—an ancient Hellenic descent into the underworld of the self. My body became the subject and the central metaphor: a vessel carrying the heavy, dark gravity of illness and uncertainty.
Moving beyond the expressionism of my earlier work, these pieces find a quieter, more concentrated way to hold the pain. I utilize dense, near-black shapes and fragments of anatomy to explore the sensation of a system shutting down. These works pack a punch because they do not look away from the shadow; they inhabit the elemental "Night" (Nyx) where the body falters and the old patterns break.
This series is a raw account of the unburdening process. It documents how the act of expression itself became the necessary opening—the only way to move through the isolating darkness and toward the first light of the Sovereign Witness. It is here, in the depths, that I began to trade survival for the quiet authority of presence and agency.
These paintings emerged from the visceral, physical experience of my own Dark Night of the Soul. In that difficult first year of Long Covid, my work became a Katabasis—an ancient Hellenic descent into the underworld of the self. My body became the subject and the central metaphor: a vessel carrying the heavy, dark gravity of illness and uncertainty.
Moving beyond the expressionism of my earlier work, these pieces find a quieter, more concentrated way to hold the pain. I utilize dense, near-black shapes and fragments of anatomy to explore the sensation of a system shutting down. These works pack a punch because they do not look away from the shadow; they inhabit the elemental "Night" (Nyx) where the body falters and the old patterns break.
This series is a raw account of the unburdening process. It documents how the act of expression itself became the necessary opening—the only way to move through the isolating darkness and toward the first light of the Sovereign Witness. It is here, in the depths, that I began to trade survival for the quiet authority of presence and agency.
Above: Blinded, Triada Samaras 2022, Acrylic on Canvas, 24 x 48 inches
Above: Disconnect 2, Triada Samaras, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 24 inches
