Something I haven’t said out loud

Hey.

Custos Invicta came out of a buildup.
Creative pressure. Personal misalignment.
The kind of weight that creeps in when your work starts growing faster than you do

I started painting faith-based pieces at the end of 2023.
The response was instant.
But I wasn’t fully aligned with the life I was depicting.
And the more attention those paintings got, the more disconnected I felt.

It was like the work had become a version of me I hadn’t grown into yet.

And that tension started pulling at everything.

I felt like I was chaining myself into an identity I hadn’t fully earned.
Back then, I was painting one thing—and living another.
And it caught up to me.

But I didn’t stop.
And somewhere in that repetition, something started to shift.

I’ve been trying to live the life I paint about for the past year.

And lately, things feel different.
Not fixed. all the way.
But lighter.

Not everything I’ll make is or will be strictly faith-based.
There are other stories in me—other themes I’m exploring.
But even those come from the same place: wanting to make something honest.

There’s still nothing I’d rather be doing than painting all day.
And the fact that you’re here—reading this, supporting this work—makes it possible for me to keep going.

I don’t take that lightly.
Thank you.