During the early days of the pandemic, I found myself stranded in Venice, a city both haunting and magnificent as it became one of the hardest-hit places in the world.

It was a surreal time—society felt like it was unraveling, yet I was surrounded by the enduring beauty of Venetian art and architecture.

These monuments had survived centuries of pandemics, wars, and natural disasters, bearing scars from their trials, yet they stood as a testament to resilience.

This experience inspired my series of paintings. Each work depicts a marble bust in varying stages of decay, with graffiti defacing the surface.

The sequence tells a story of destruction and endurance, with the cracks and markings representing the scars we carry from life’s challenges.

To extend this narrative, I crafted frames that echo the paintings—handmade, cracked, and carved with graffiti—melding the art and its presentation into a single statement.

These paintings are a reflection of the stoicism I discovered during that time. Just as Venice’s monuments endure despite their damage, stoicism teaches us to accept and rise above life’s adversities.

Through these works, I explore how we, too, can embrace our scars as symbols of survival, finding strength in our ability to withstand and persist.