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Emerald Barkley

CREATOR
Watercolor artist and bakery aficionado.

Hello! I am a non-binary watercolor artist in Northern California, and my work is largely about the transformational nature of Death Work. I believe that we go through several different life and death cycles throughout the course of our lives, and that we can approach these times of hard transition and renewal with a sense of radical beauty and furious joy.

“Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.”
-Pema Chödrön

In my work I often use imagery of skulls to illustrate that indestructible piece of self. So often we see skull art as dark art, and so I get a huge kick out of using soft colors and surrounding my subjects with flowers to illustrate themes of vulnerability, beauty, and strength. I love to find these things in the places where I have been taught to feel ashamed.

You can find more of my work online in these places! Website / instagram / tiktok / bluesky /patreon



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