11 inches by 14 Inches - Nitram Charcoal on hand toned Bristol paper - 2018
Wolves are infamously depicted throughout history as deceitful, viscous, manipulative, and evil. Italian professor, Laurentius Abstemius elaborated on this ageless symbolism:
“ A wolf, dressed in a sheep's skin, blended himself in with the flock of sheep and every day killed one of the sheep. When the shepherd noticed this was happening, he hanged the wolf on a very tall tree. On other shepherds asking him why he had hanged a sheep, the shepherd answered: The skin is that of a sheep, but the activities were those of a wolf.”
The realization that it is the inward characteristics that makes a person, not their outward disguise is a very contemporary topic that we can all relate to. Though one can try to hide their evil deeds and true selves in the physical plane of existence, death will wash away the skin and physical characteristics until all that is left is the bone. At death we are judged not by how we appeared to be in the world but what our core intentions and motives were.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” Jesus Christ