Stone does not curl. This staircase does.
A lighthouse stair at dusk, seen from below, winding up and away from you. Cut stone, grey and cold, doing something no engineer drew. It folds inward on itself, tighter and tighter, until the last turn is barely a gap.
Look at it once more before you scroll
There is a shell in there. A nautilus, its chambers getting smaller as they go, built out of nothing but the stair’s own recession and the shadow between the treads. Nobody painted it on top. It was hiding in the geometry the whole time. One critic put it better than we can: “The hidden nautilus shell elegantly reveals itself on a second look.”
Then there is the climber. One hand on the rail, sharp enough to see the knuckles, coat sharp too. But the face is turned and blurred with movement, so it is never anyone in particular. It could be you. It could be your kid in twenty years.
The window glow does the rest. Warm amber spilling into a deep blue-indigo dusk, with a thin violet in the shadows. That is Carmen Delacroix’s way. She builds a quiet, ordinary place, hides a second picture in it last, and then refuses to tell you what she hid.
What happens once it is up
Your kids will find the shell before you do. Then they will find something else and argue with you about it.
Getting it on your wall
Portrait, printed edge to edge with no white border, on smooth museum-grade archival matte paper. Non-reflective, so a lamp across the room gives you the stair back instead of a bright white patch. It comes rolled in a tube, ready for a frame you already own, or pinned up bare where it looks perfectly at home.
Most people take the 16×20 (40.6 x 50.8 cm) at $49. Go to 18×24 (45.7 x 61 cm) at $69 if the wall is tall and you want the blurred hand readable from across the room. The small 11×14 (27.9 x 35.6 cm) is $29. Made to order, up to ten business days, free shipping in the continental US, and nobody else on your street will have it.
One honest thing
It is dark. Dusk-dark, with the light coming from one place. If you want every wall bright and breezy, this is the wrong picture.
If you like a puzzle you never finish, take it home. Or go see the rest of what Carmen has hidden, and follow her if you want the next one before anyone else.
One is a piece. Two is a set. Three is a collection.
Almost nobody stops at one. A second work by the same hand turns a wall into a pairing. A third turns it into something you chose rather than something you bought. There are 6 other works by Carmen Delacroix available.
Rooftops Resting Gold – Carmen Delacroix | Fine Art Print Price range: $129 through $229
Witness Barely Waking – Carmen Delacroix | Digital Download$19
Key Beneath the Moon – Carmen Delacroix | Digital Download$19
Window Keeping Vigil – Carmen Delacroix | Digital Download$19
Glass Holding Moths – Carmen Delacroix | Fine Art Print Price range: $29 through $69
Willow Sleeping Below – Carmen Delacroix | Fine Art Print Price range: $129 through $229
