Delicate Shelter 2019

Jason Limon’s painting presents a skeleton holding a rose inside a seed pod. The subdued palette and matte surface feel like a slow reveal, as if coaxed into being over time. I imagine Limon constructing this image from a collection of fragments. It is as if his artistic process mirrors the unfolding of life itself, built from scraps of memory and experience. This skeleton, cradling a delicate rose, feels like a bittersweet meditation on existence, a reminder of our shared fate, softened by nature. I wonder if Limon thought of the Surrealists and the way they mixed dreams and reality? Maybe Remedios Varo or Leonora Carrington, who were also into strange combinations of death and life. In many ways, artists are always talking to each other, riffing on the same themes and ideas. We paint to make sense of the world, using whatever language feels right in the moment. It’s like one big conversation that never ends.