Archangel

"And Christian, gifted artisan, what did you see?
An angel of the apocalypse rising out of a great cavern; the fiery chasms split open the sky like a great cathedral, blazing red. The hell-cathedral (for it could only belong there) bellowed, and the angel cracked in a thousand lines, into one shattering vision of ecstatic stained-glass. The heart of the angel opened to reveal, surprisingly, a moon. Yet behind him rose the morning sun."

-Two things about this painting... first, I created with my story-in-progress in mind, called "My Angel of Glass". It is a gothic tale where an artisan becomes obsessed with creating a stained-glass window of a glorious angel... and in the heart of this angel there is a golden rose. Obsession leads to tragedy and sin, until the artisan ultimately finds salvation and a reversal of all previous misfortunes.

Secondly, I drew several references from paintings of St. Michael fighting the Beast (Satan) and I found that extremely intriguin as well. So in a way this is also my interpretation of the biblical story. I've adopted a very long, tallish composition similar to that of gothic windows, which was quite an ass to scan. But thanks for viewing!