Psychopomps
Psychopomps (after pagan Slavic goddess Morana) - various printmaking techniques including drypoint, photoresist and matrix print with watercolor on Fabriano and watercolor paper, variable dimensions, 2025/6
This series originates from pencil drawings that were later translated into digital vector forms. The vectors served as compositional templates for a group of one-off prints created using a combination of printmaking techniques. Some prints were subsequently developed with watercolor, introducing subtle tonal variations and atmospheric washes. While the motifs share a common visual language, each print remains unique, reflecting a dialogue between digital precision and the material unpredictability of manual printmaking.
The imagery draws on the concept of psychopomps—beings that guide the souls of the deceased into the afterlife. Across different mythological and religious traditions, these figures appear as angels, demons, spirits, or hybrid creatures combining human and animal features, often with bird-like qualities that suggest movement between worlds. In this reinterpretation, the psychopomp appears as an ambiguous, shifting figure suspended between anthropomorphic and organic forms.
This work draws particularly on the imagery associated with the Slavic pagan goddess Morana, connected with winter, death, and the cyclical decay of nature. Her name derives from the Czech word mor (“plague”), evoking both the destructive and purifying aspects of mortality within natural cycles. The creatures inhabit a threshold space between life and dissolution, functioning as intermediaries between life and death, body and spirit, permanence and mortality.