The Bare Bones of Narcissism
This is my latest painting titled Pestilence Takes a Vow and it stands as a pivotal work within The Inside Joke’s Bare Bones of Narcissism gallery. The image presents a bride reduced to bone, dressed in ritual and tradition while embodying decay beneath the surface. Marriage here is not romanticized but examined as a contract that can mask deeper corruption when entered through ego, entitlement, and illusion rather than mutual care.
The skeletal figure represents a union made with something already diseased, where commitment becomes a performance and devotion is hollow. The bouquet held close to the ribs suggests appearances carefully arranged to signify purity, sacrifice, and love, while the body beneath reveals absence and erosion. This work reflects how narcissism can weaponize vows, using intimacy, family, and lifelong promises as tools for control rather than connection, leaving partners bound to something lifeless long before they realize it.
Pestilence Takes a Vow speaks to generational harm born from unions rooted in image instead of empathy. It confronts how narcissistic bonds often look sacred from the outside while slowly poisoning everyone within reach. Like much of this series, the painting asks the viewer to question what is celebrated, what is endured, and what quietly dies behind ceremonial smiles and carefully staged milestones.
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