Original artwork description:

Vase (Popocatzin) takes its name from the Nahuatl word meaning “the one who smokes.” Inspired by pre-Hispanic censers and ritual vessels, the painting reimagines an ancient form as a turquoise-green vase that exhales a delicate plume of smoke. The carved serpent face on the vessel suggests both ferocity and vitality, transforming the object into a living being that breathes, speaks, or offers its spirit.

In Mesoamerican cosmologies, smoke was a bridge between the human and divine -a way for prayers, offerings, and life force to ascend. Through vivid colour and expressive brushwork, Stephenson animates this connection, presenting Popocatzin as both artifact and apparition: a vessel of transformation where the past continues to breathe into the present.

Materials used:

Oil paint on canvas

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