Silent Monsters is a seven-piece tactile relief series on taboo emotions: anger, fear, shame, anxiety, envy, apathy, and laziness.
Papier-mâché, acrylic, metal masks, and film prop techniques. Each work is an original from the Prague studio, 2025.
Individual pieces are available; the full series is priced on request.
A series of paintings devoted to negative emotions that are tacitly taboo in society: anger, fear, shame, anxiety, envy, apathy, and laziness.
There are seven of them — in parallel with the seven deadly sins. Each painting stands for one emotion people avoid naming and are not supposed to feel. These emotions are denied; we often pretend they do not exist at all. And those who feel them are treated as if something is wrong with them.
This series answers the question of why, in our civilized society, there are so many emotions we fear — emotions that are not accepted, not understood, and tabooed. We judge ourselves for them; others judge us too.
While making the series I combined papier-mâché with techniques from film prop-making. Each emotion appears as a monster that lives inside us — not ugly, but unsettlingly attractive in its own way. Their mouths are sealed with detailed metal masks, as if these emotions are not allowed to speak: hidden behind fine words and trimmed to socially acceptable patterns of behavior.
I tried to choose colors the way each emotion feels from within, in my view.
Background details symbolize beliefs tied to each emotion and the bodily sensations that arise when we live through them. They complete the images and set the stage for how each emotion appears.
Anger is something very bright and saturated inside us. When we are angry, it is as if fire ignites within. If we do not live it through, it turns inward and we begin to burn from the inside.
Holding anger back is deeply unpleasant and heavy. It takes a great deal of strength and attention. By suppressing anger, we suppress our power as well. Anger helps us run, achieve, and survive. It helps us create. When we suppress anger, we drift toward gloom and a half-alive state.
The body’s reactions to anger: focus, sharper vision, the world slows down while flame rises within. Cheeks turn red; we look more alive and more beautiful.
I portrayed Anger as lava seeping through our armor of “mindful people don’t get angry.”
Papier-mâché, mixed media, painted in acrylic. Fantasy portrait, Bright red, Relief painting, Textured technique.
Available original
It grows out of anger. Where anger flares up, fear is more about freezing and cooling down.
When we feel fear, we want to do anything just not to feel it. What we fear is usually the unknown — what we cannot control, avoid, or foresee.
The body reads the unknown as death. Unwind any fear far enough and you arrive at the sense of something unknown that could kill you — even when, in the moment, it will not.
The image of death led me to use Baphomet as the prototype for Fear.
Fear is adrenaline. When we move through fear and it does not kill us, we feel more alive. Survival is victory.
Fear has many faces. Often it is a meta-emotion that appears when we are afraid to feel another emotion. The way out of fear usually goes through another reaction or emotion — fight, flight, or freeze. I reflected that by placing faceless figures in the background.
Papier-mâché, mixed media, painted in acrylic. Fantasy portrait, Brown, Beige, Metallic.
Available original
An emotion many people dread. When we feel shame, we want to hide, become smaller, disappear, leave the room.
Shame about ourselves is the fear of being imperfect. By noticing what shames us and working through it, we can learn to accept ourselves. Without accepting shame, self-love is impossible. Accepting our imperfection leads us toward loving ourselves.
“Spanish shame” — shame on someone else’s behalf — is about control. We want to control others, want them to match our ideals. When we accept that kind of shame, we release control and accept others. We make peace with the world’s imperfection.
That is why I gave Shame five horns: nothing like it exists in nature; we can only accept such a strange, incomprehensible creature.
Shame seems to hide among foliage, blending in color to become as invisible as possible.
Papier-mâché, mixed media, painted in acrylic. Fantasy portrait, Brown, Beige, Metallic.
Available original
It appears when we cannot cope with fear, anger, and shame.
Anxiety is shaky and largely unclear. We usually fear something specific, feel shame for a reason, get angry at someone or something. Anxiety mixes many emotions together.
Anxiety helps us live more comfortably — to spread straw where something unpleasant might happen. It helps us tell what is ours and what is not.
I painted it green, like spreading acid or something radioactive: constant anxiety turns into anxiousness. And anxiousness keeps us from sleeping, eating, living fully, and feeling anything else.
In the background — leaves that hide the radiation. Like tossed-off phrases: “Why worry, nothing has happened yet.”
Papier-mâché, mixed media, painted in acrylic, framed. Fantasy portrait, Green, Metallic, Textured wall art.
Available original
Society likes to think that mindful, “worked-through” people do not envy. Envy is split into supposedly good “white” and bad “black,” as if to tint it and excuse its existence.
Envy is an emotion that helps us want — to see what exists in the world and understand what of it we would like for ourselves. We mostly envy wonderful, pleasant things.
So I portrayed it as a beautiful female figure in a crown with ornaments.
She watches in silence with red eyes burning with anger. Unwind envy into anger and aim that anger at what you want — and energy appears to go after it.
Papier-mâché, mixed media, painted in acrylic. Fantasy portrait, Green, Metallic, Copper.
Available original
It appears when we suppress other emotions for a long time, or when something does not work out for us for a long time. Apathy is an extreme form of sadness that arises when we have crushed, unlived, or unrealized feelings somewhere.
In apathy it seems nothing is wanted. More often it is a decision not to enter another emotion, not to live it. Not to pursue what we want, to pour strength into anxiety, worry, and suppressing other feelings.
Living through sadness can be quite pleasant. Like a pendulum swinging the other way, it shows us when we feel good.
I painted Apathy purple. There is a belief that purple is the most depressive color.
Papier-mâché, mixed media, painted in acrylic, framed. Fantasy portrait, Metallic, Purple, Relief painting.
Available original
Laziness is the engine of progress — so it is buried in gears.
Laziness shows what is truly our goal and what is not. If we feel lazy, perhaps we did not want it that much. Or the goal was imposed: by society, parents, or a boss. When we are interested, laziness is rare.
But even when something fascinates us and we deeply want it, laziness can mean burnout. If we are too lazy to pursue beloved, desired, beautiful goals, we are exhausted — time to rest and listen to ourselves.
Listen to our other emotions that have been trying to tell us something for a long time while we did not hear them — and so we have no strength left for what we are not lazy about.
The best way to let emotions out is creativity. Hitting a neighbor is a poor idea; smashing dishes is not always possible. Creating almost always is.
That is why Laziness is the largest and most expressive piece. Only she has closed eyes and an unsealed mouth: she and about her can be spoken of — yet we often close our eyes to what she is telling us.
Papier-mâché, mixed media, painted in acrylic. Fantasy portrait, Metallic, Rust, Blue.
Available original
Studio prices for the artwork (€); packing and shipping are separate. Etsy and Saatchi Art prices may differ. Amounts shown are indicative and not a public offer.
