"Soul Cell"

Copyright Marla J. Loss, Mixed Media 29" x 16"

What is the soul and how can it be represented? I drew the soul here as a single cell or possibly a whole world, hovering under a ribcage. Eve was fashioned from a rib, possibly symbolic of the fact that our human spirit is encased in a physical cage.

The viney branches at the top are God’s hands, scattering the colorful pieces. These visions from heaven create new pictures and patterns over the top as the ribcage protects a rootball, sprouting and growing in different directions. In this final picture of the series, the physical form is no longer trapped by flesh or even the edge of the picture. I did not plan this picture. I feel like God gave this composition to me as a gift as I was making it. The title refers to the soul as an individual cell and also to the rib cage as a chamber for the soul.

To see “The Window Pain” and the “Panic Vine” click here and here.

“So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man.” -From Genesis 2