The Latin phrase incurvatus en se refers to humanity curving in on itself, pointing inward to self rather than upward to God. This piece is my attempt to depict the agony Jesus felt in the garden of Gethsemane as he conquered temptation and turned up rather than in.

Strongly influenced by works such as the Röttgen Pietà, Giovanni Pitteri’s St. Matthias, and Picasso’s Guernica, I made Jesus’ body distorted and his face anguished, trying to portray with ink and charcoal the torture he must have felt in those hours alone.

A faint halo can be seen behind his head, and a sleeping disciple against the tree behind him.