Meet The Work: Reaching
Meet the Work: Reaching – A Meditation on Sin, Judgment, and the Desire to Rise
In my latest piece, Reaching, a woman shrouded in cloth stretches upward, her hand extended toward an angel that floats just beyond her grasp. It’s a moment filled with tension and hope—an image of longing, connection, and the quiet complexity of spiritual struggle.
But this is no simple ascent.
Wound tightly around the woman’s body is a snake, its form coiled but its head lifted—not toward her, but toward the angel’s outstretched hand. The serpent’s face is closer to the divine than hers. And that’s where the questions begin.
In traditional symbolism, the snake has always represented sin, reaching back to the days of Adam and Eve. Its presence here is intentional. The viewer is meant to wonder: is this snake pulling her down, keeping her tethered to shame, guilt, or earthly desire? Is it the one preparing to strike, threatening to sever her connection to grace?
Or—perhaps most unsettling—have we simply assumed that the snake is the enemy?
Reaching is a painting built on the friction between assumption and ambiguity. In a world that rushes to label, judge, and condemn, this piece asks us to pause. Maybe this snake isn’t evil—maybe it’s misunderstood. Maybe it represents something else entirely: instinct, protection, or transformation. Maybe the woman and the serpent are reaching together.
The woman’s face is obscured beneath the cloth that shrouds her—a covering that complicates her reach. The fabric veils her identity and dims her vision, becoming both barrier and question: Did she drape herself in it, out of shame or protection? Or did someone else wrap it around her—an act of control, silencing, or fear disguised as care? The cloth becomes symbolic of all the external forces and internal doubts that make reaching for the divine feel impossible.
The backdrop of the piece deepens this tension. The background is a gradient of deep reds, shifting from darker tones behind the woman to lighter hues behind the angel. This deliberate contrast mirrors their spiritual distance. The angel floats against a backdrop of soft light—an atmosphere untouched by earthly pain, unburdened by despair. His space feels airy, elevated, infused with muted gold, suggesting purity, divinity, and peace.
In contrast, the woman rises from shadow. The darker reds behind her speak to suffering, struggle, and the unresolved weight of living. Her position within the composition underscores that she has not yet crossed into grace. The gradient becomes a visual representation of spiritual distance, the space between what we are and what we hope to become.
