Ophanim (Be Not Afraid)
ink on paper

A lot of people talk about angels showing up and immediately saying, “be not afraid.” I get why.

I saw this one in a dream—an ophanim. Not the soft, human kind of angel. The strange, biblical kind. Rings spinning. Eyes blinking. Wings moving slow, like it was hovering in place. Quiet, steady, and completely unreal.

When I drew it, I wanted it to feel alive the way it did in the dream. The motion is the whole point: the circular structure like a mechanism, the eyes multiplying into pattern, the feathers layered and dense so the wings feel like weight and protection at the same time. It’s not meant to be cute or comforting. It’s meant to be beautiful in a way that makes your stomach drop a little.

Shortly after that “encounter,” I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

I don’t say that like I’m trying to make a claim about fate or signs. I just can’t separate the two. This drawing is what it looks like when something visits you in your sleep and you carry it into waking life—when you don’t fully understand what you saw, but you know you saw it. And you draw it anyway.

-PERSONAL COLLECTION-