Taking souls

“Taking Souls” reflects the psychological cost of prolonged exposure to violence, operational environments and the permanent proximity of death. In this world, conflict does not operate within office hours. It continues through nights, routines, deployments and years until the line between profession and identity slowly disappears.

The skull represents more than death itself. It symbolizes accumulation. Every confrontation leaves something behind. Every successful operation, every loss, every necessary action and every moment that could not be undone becomes part of the psychological weight carried forward afterward.

The red marks across the skull represent both physical violence and internal erosion. Not all damage comes from failure. Some of it comes from survival itself. The longer someone operates inside environments where taking life becomes normalized, the more difficult it becomes to separate professional necessity from personal consequence. 

Rather than glorifying violence, “Taking Souls” captures the gradual realization that these environments never only take from others. Over time, they also begin taking pieces from the people surviving inside them and changing the way they look at life from another perspective.

Created on canvas using acrylic paint applied with a shooting glove, a combat knife and dabbed with a handkerchief connected to the operational atmosphere behind the work. I use real operational materials to leave something of myself behind in the canvas to give the artwork a soul...

Dimension 40 X 50 cm on canvas