Lover 

Curator: What a gorgeous piece. It's entitled "Lover" by Cassidy Rae Marietta, created using a combination of drawing, painting, and mixed media, including acrylic paint. Editor: It has a dreamy, almost surreal quality. The way the skeleton embraces the woman, surrounded by vibrant flowers—it’s beautiful but with a hint of melancholy. The contrast is captivating. Curator: Absolutely, the artist seems to play with themes of life and death, love and decay, in a very evocative way. Notice how the floral patterns act as both a frame and an integral part of the narrative, suggesting nature's persistence through these contrasting states. It makes me think about cycles, especially around beauty. Editor: Indeed, it brings to mind the tradition of memento mori in art history, which prompts us to reflect on mortality, reminding us that beauty is transient. Considering the artist’s potential exploration of the relationships between love, beauty and death; there is almost a reclaiming of love even in the face of death, as an eternal experience rather than a temporary gift, even as death is so often associated with decay. It almost reads like a contemporary reclamation. Curator: Precisely! The naive art style enhances this timelessness. The simple rendering actually focuses the emotional impact, and gives it a sense of accessibility—the artwork feels like an intimate confession, a quiet story shared. Editor: Yes. I think too, about the political and social relevance of an image such as this—a powerful re-imagining of female narratives through art that moves us towards a more honest depiction of life and love beyond some socially palatable or constructed norm. Curator: It is amazing to me, how seemingly disparate mediums all blend together so effortlessly here. You feel a natural wholeness as you experience it—it just breathes as a cohesive experience. Editor: Agreed! Marietta invites us to consider these multifaceted intersections. It’s an invitation to rethink our preconceived notions of art, beauty, identity and existence.