Holy Icon

"Clarice Lispector: The Inner Sea", acrylic on canvas panel, 12 x 16 inches, Bishop Maxim, 2023-2026

A raw, glowing portrait of Clarice Lispector that feels like it’s halfway between her face and the inside of her head. Her eyes are huge and restless, pulling you in the way her writing does. The colors on her face keep shifting, breaking apart and sliding back together—like identity refusing to sit still. Behind her, the sea isn’t really a sea. It’s this vast, quiet field of consciousness, calm but endless. Down below, the little cluster of buildings feels half-remembered, like a fragile dream of home, exile, and everything she carried from one continent to another. It’s not just a portrait. It’s a meditation that hums with the same mystery she always wrote about: the visible world trembling right on the edge of the unseen.