In Sic Vita Est—Latin for “Such is life”—the stillness of a vase of cactus flowers is unsettled by signs of tension, survival, and inevitability. The flowers lean heavily, their blossoms bright yet fragile, evoking the weight of endurance and the fleeting nature of vitality. The vessel that holds them, adorned with vivid leaf-like markings, becomes both container and stage—an emblem of beauty pressed against time.
The Latin inscription at the top and the jaguar head watching from the corner lend the work a memento mori quality: a reminder of life’s brevity and the lurking forces—predatory or inevitable—that shape our existence. Below, the red ground teems with silhouettes of plants, tools, and animal forms, reinforcing the cycle of growth, struggle, and decay.
This painting speaks to the dual nature of acceptance: acknowledging the limits of life, while finding richness in its colors, textures, and symbols. Like much of my work, Sic Vita Est draws from the raw honesty of outsider and naïve traditions, where meaning surfaces not through polish, but through the layering of lived experience, symbol, and gesture.
Here, “such is life” is not resignation but recognition—the blooming cactus, the predator’s gaze, the decorated vessel—all are part of a single truth: life persists, even as it bends under its own weight.