"This art is inspired by the Chachapoyan Peruvian mummies. The Chachapoyans were a Pre-Columbian civilization that pre-dated the Incans, and they fought them fiercely. The Incans gave them the name The Cloud People because they lived up in the mountains and cliffs. The backgroundof the painting is styled after a Greek Orthodox icon because the Chachapoya revered their dead. I gold leaved the painting before I glazed it with oil, so that the gold would subtly show through just like an ancient icon."