Shiv 1 (In Quietude)

A close, meditative profile emerges from a field of pared-down symbols, as if the face is listening to an older language written in curves, dots, and quiet interruptions of geometry. The warm, earthen modeling of the skin softens into a red perimeter that reads like a protective aura—part garment, part threshold—while the surrounding marks hover between script and musical notation, suggesting memory drifting just beyond articulation. Light is held rather than cast, giving the figure a hush of inwardness, where identity feels less like a declaration and more like a contemplation of what remains unsaid.