Oil, acrylic and gold ink on wooden panel, 9x12.5x1cm. 
Message us at info@louisemcnaught.com or via the chat box for purchase details.
The Death’s Head Hawk Moth has long been misunderstood — feared for the skull-like marking it bears, and woven into folklore as an omen. Yet symbolically, it is not a creature of doom, but of passage. In this Tiny Totem, the hawkmoth hovers within a field of sacred geometry — circles intersecting, portals aligning — suggesting not an ending, but a crossing. Its ember-lit backdrop glows like a celestial threshold, the moment between darkness and revelation.
The skull upon its thorax becomes less a symbol of death and more a reminder of impermanence. A quiet memento mori. A prompt toward presence. Moths navigate by light and this one moves through shadow without fear.
As a pocket-sized icon, this piece speaks to transformation, initiation, and the thin veil between seen and unseen worlds. It is a talisman for those standing at the edge of change — a reminder that crossing is not collapse, but evolution.