Oil on canvas

48”X72”

Unique Artwork

2022

Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity

Artwork from the collab between Burial Brewery in Asheville and Amar Stewart. This label was produced as a 6ft oil painting then turned into a label.

“This piece is modeled after a popular style of painting called “Vanitas”. In the 16th and 17th century still life paintings were demonstrated as the temporality and futility of life.

I have personally experienced how fragile life is after fighting tongue cancer and I wanted to tell my story through this painting.

I staged my own Vanitas using inspiration from The Greats, like Adriaen van Utrecht and included items such as Jewelry that have symbolic meaning to me. You will see numbers and marking on the books. 17 is the number of teeth I have had removed over the past 5 years. Just below the number you will see a prosthesis which is a replacement for my bottom row of teeth.

You will also see a number 6 with a skull with a removed jaw. This marks my 6th year being cancer free.

To the left of the prosthesis there is a tongue. This is the tongue that I no longer have as it was taken away from me during surgery.

The candles and flowers represent light but the flowers are decaying which highlights how temporary life is. I dropped in a chocolate frog from Harry Potter because who doesn’t love Harry Potter?

The main skull also has a missing jaw which signifies some complications due to radiation I had to have causing “osteoradionecrosis”, necrosis meaning the death of most or all of the cells in an organ or tissue due to disease, injury, or failure of the blood supply.”

And finally a baseball bat to the back of the skull because of all the trauma to my head.