Delicate Shelter 2019

Jason Limon made this panel painting, called "Delicate Shelter," using a soft, muted color palette. It feels a little bit like looking into the past. The texture is really fascinating; it looks like Limon built up layers, creating a tactile surface that draws you in. Take a look at the central form, it's like a seed pod, or maybe a strange sort of chrysalis. The segments that form the shell have this lovely gradient of color on each section. Then there's this figure of a skeleton holding a single rose. It's this beautiful memento mori image, but with such a sense of tenderness and care. There is a dialogue between past and present, life and death, growth and decay. It reminds me a little bit of Joseph Cornell’s boxes, but through the lens of someone like Frida Kahlo; deeply personal, richly symbolic. It's about the ambiguity of art, that it can embrace so many interpretations and meanings, all at once.