Heart of Phoenix

8. Juli

Series: Art Awakening
No: 03
Original Artwork: 2021
Size: 70 × 50 cm
Medium: Acrylic painting

Animated Version: 2026
Music: Between Death & Newborn
Artwork, animation & music by Sem T. Nova

© 2026 Sem T. Nova. All rights reserved.

Status:Not for sale. Available for exhibitions.

A meditative work of music and visual art about letting go, new beginnings and inner strength.

Music, Painting, Animation and Video: Sem T. Nova

2021: The year was drawing to a close. Between the stress of shift work and far too much exercise, deepening my practice with palette knife techniques and painting became increasingly important to me. I could feel that I needed change and wanted to find new paths.

I had withdrawn more and more and turned deeply inward. Only later did I understand how strongly difficult experiences from the previous years had settled within me. Uncertainty in my surroundings also affected my health, emotionally as well as physically.

I had no idea what was waiting for me. But I wanted to keep following my intuition. There was no clear vision. Only the thought of light, of burdens, of many eyes, and of a figure igniting into something new within the fire. The phoenix lets go of what has been in order to unfold freely. Without heaviness. Light as a feather. Like sparks rising from the fire into a sky that seems vast and limitless.

Finish_Sem T. Nova_Heart of Phoenix Nest.JPEG

After this first unfolding on paper, I began creating my second painting with brush and palette knife, freely and intuitively. I immersed myself in the world of colors before me and the sounds of the music surrounding me.

In those weeks between the days leading up to Christmas and shortly before New Year, a painting emerged that, to this day, reflects letting go, peace and the shelter of a nest just before the newly born phoenix unfolds its wings.
In the years that followed, art made many of my personal stories visible. It gave me comfort in certain moments and unconsciously processed emotions.