Created with dry pastels on a monumental scale (100x70 cm) ,
Having spent over 100 hours playing , Kalyma is the fifth work in my collection.
"Souls of the World".
KALYMA — The soul that walks with fire.
In the scorched lands where the rock opens like an ancient scar, a woman advances. She doesn't show herself: she reveals herself—like a flame coming to life.
Her name is Kalyma.
The heat dances around her, the canyon breathes behind her, and fire illuminates her body with a raw light. Her eyes hold two calm, deep embers, those of someone who has endured hardship and turned it into strength. Her tattoos tell what words cannot: paths, initiations, silent victories.
Each symbol is a trace of what she has chosen to become. Between her and the fire, a balance is created: strength and gentleness, instinct and wisdom, earth and light.
Kalyma is not a warrior. She is that moment when we understand that fire doesn't always destroy: it reveals, it forges, it transforms. Watching her, the world slows down. A truth emerges: we don't go through life without burning something behind us—a fear, a doubt, a former version of ourselves.
Kalyma embodies this inner transformation. She walks through the flames not to defy them, but to remind herself that she can pass through them. And if she fascinates us, it's not for her mystery. It's for what she awakens: the primal force to move forward, even when everything is burning. The certainty that at the bottom of the canyon, a truer version of ourselves awaits us.
Kalyma is not a work of art. It is a passage —an invitation to be reborn, red, vibrant, alive.
