Phobiaphobia (the fear of fear), 2021

24" x 27" acrylic on board; Basic Frame 

Born from a spiraling automatic drawing, Phobiaphobia unfolds like a dream-image solidified in paint. A small figure flees across a barren plain, tethered to a chain of colossal, mask-like faces that swell into the sky. Their cracked, earthen textures suggest both ancient idols and weathered psychological archetypes, linking the scene to mythological traditions where masks serve as thresholds between human and divine.

From a Jungian perspective, the work evokes the struggle with the “shadow”—those aspects of the self that loom larger the more we attempt to outrun them. The tether of faces recalls the weight of ancestral memory, inherited fears, and the collective unconscious, all pressing down upon the individual. Yet within this haunting vision lies transformation: the act of running suggests not defeat, but the beginning of an inward journey toward integration.

Like much of the artist’s work, the painting balances mythic resonance with personal dream language, where inner landscapes take on monumental, almost cosmic form. Phobiaphobia becomes a meditation on fear itself—the fear of fear—and the strange beauty that emerges when we dare to give it shape.

Reverse: Norman's Ark.