Oil and acrylic on wood with gold leaf, 10x10x2cm.
In ancient Egyptian cosmology, the scarab beetle was sacred to Khepri — the rising sun, the force that rolls the solar orb across the sky and renews the world each morning. Small but unstoppable, the scarab became a symbol of resurrection, rebirth, and the eternal cycle of becoming.
This Tiny Totem holds that ancient story in miniature. Rendered in iridescent greens and molten golds, the scarab appears illuminated from within, as though it carries its own fragment of sunrise beneath its shell. The jewel-like carapace shifts between shadow and radiance, echoing the tension between darkness and light that defines all transformation. Around it, a field of quiet cosmic flecks suggests both desert night and distant stars.
The gold-leaf edge frames the beetle like a devotional relic. A reminder that even the smallest life form participates in sacred cycles far greater than itself. In mythology, scarabs were buried with the dead as protective amulets — guardians of the heart and witnesses to moral truth. They symbolised not just physical rebirth, but spiritual reckoning: the idea that what we carry within us matters.