An investigation into what I term the “animalistic default mode,” a primal, instinctual drive to retreat into a compacted, fetal form during moments of extremity. This response, triggered by extreme trauma, comfort, or pleasure, reflects the body’s oldest survival programming. It recalls the embryonic origins of the human form, but within this context, the fetal gesture is not about regression, it is the seed of transformation.

The series unfolds as a progression, tracing the evolution of the self in the aftermath of rupture. The early works embody the moment of compression: the immediate, reflexive retreat inward. Forms are dense, folded, suspended in chromatic voids that echo the disorientation of trauma. As the series develops, the figures begin to shift and evolve. Compression gives way to subtle motion: ripples, torsion, asymmetry, but the figure evolves into a more recognizable form, hinting at internal restructuring. A new psychic form is assembling itself in the dark.

By the final works, the self is no longer simply surviving, but actively reconstituting. The compressed body becomes a new being entirely. Instinct and abstraction collide to form something new and more whole. Unbalanced horizon lines introduce a sense of pulse, of becoming. The paintings do not resolve neatly, but they gesture toward a threshold where a new self forms.