I thought this interesting fella could be welcomed here in this fine community filled with completely normal art.
He lies down heartbroken, knowing that he will never see her again, he took a decision that prevented him from being there, right beside her, when she needed him the most. He ran through the village looking for someone who had a magic cure, he knocked on every door, but all said the same 'nothing can be done' and just like that he lost her final moments, he couldn't hold her hand.
Tears went down his bed to the wooden floor, through the cracks on the wood it leaked and so the tears reach the ground. His eyes opened even though he was asleep he could see his room with full clarity and a still flame is lit, floating in the air. From it, two more emerge, and of those two others come to form a scorching wall that, however, doesn't burn. He's hypnotized by this wildfire in the center of his house, his pupils dilate even more when someone gets through the wall, a hellish being with giant claws and frightening features stands in front of him.
Still unable to move, he wants to get up and run but he's petrified, his body doesn't respond. He breathes deeply and stares at this motionless being and remembers those old illustrations, it's a servant of Yama, the god in charge of the passing from life to death, he sees it's kapala lit and understands that he has to accept that nothing is forever and when waking up the sun will rise again, until one night when the servant comes back and reminds him that he'll break off some things but the journey continues.
Process
I found this picture taken on 1925 of pure chance on Twitter several years ago and I kept it, I knew it was something special but at the time I didn't have the patience to look more into the subject. Fast forward to this eternal quarantine we have in Argentina and the story explains itself.
It turns out that this guy in a costume is taking part in a Tibetan Buddhist ritual, so I wanted to know more about this branch of Buddhism and read about Yama, the god that Chitipati, a pair of lovers also known as guardians of charnel, serve. It was fascinating and I decided to paint an illustration about it and write a short story, or even a myth, related to it. For the background I looked at ancient Tibetan paintings, I found this one from the XVII century, I wanted to respect the style of the Tibet and so I incorporated the flames.
It's one of the paintings that I most enjoyed making, reading, and writing about it.
I hope you liked it!