INFERNO, Canto XXVI, illustration 3

Title: "Master," I said, "your words make me more sure,

but I had seen already that it was so

and meant to ask what spirit must endure

the pains of that great flame which splits away

in two great horns, as if it rose from the pyre

where Eteocles and Polynices lay?"

He answered me: "Forever round this path

Ulysses and Diomede move in such dress

united in pain as they once were in wrath..."

12.25 x 10.5 inches
acrylic paint, collage, and watercolor on found paper
January 26, 2026

INFERNO, Canto XXVI, illustration 2

Title: I stood on the bridge, and leaned out from the edge;

so far, that but for a jut of rock I held to

I should have been sent hurtling from the ledge

without being pushed.

17 x 11 inches
acrylic paint, collage, and ink on found paper
January 25, 2026

INFERNO, Canto XXVI, illustration 1

Title: I mourned among those rocks, and I mourn again

when memory returns to what I saw…

11.25 x 8.75 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
January 24, 2026

INFERNO, Canto XXV, illustration 4

Title: Responding sympathetically to each other,

the reptile cleft his tail into a fork,

and the wounded sinner drew his feet together.

The sinner's legs and thighs began to join:

they grew together so, that soon no trace

of juncture could be seen from toe to loin.

Point by point the reptile's cloven tail

grew to the form of what the sinner lost;

one skin began to soften, one to scale.

10.75 x 15.75 inches
acrylic paint and collage on found paper
January 23, 2026

INFERNO, Canto XXV, illustration 3

Title: For suddenly, as I watched, I saw a lizard

come darting forward on six great taloned feet

and fasten itself to a sinner from crotch to gizzard.

Its middle feet sank in the sweat and grime

of the wretch's paunch, its forefeet clamped his arms,

its teeth bit through both cheeks. At the same time

its hind feet fastened on the sinner's thighs:

its tail thrust through his legs and closed its coil

over his loins. I saw it with my own eyes!

12 x 8.75 inches
acrylic paint and collage on found paper
January 20, 2026

INFERNO, Canto XXV, illustration 2

Title: …and there

I saw a furious Centaur race up, roaring: 

"Where is the insolent blasphemer? Where?"

I do not think as many serpents swarm

in all the Maremma as he bore on his back

from the haunch to the first sign of our human form.

Upon his shoulders, just behind his head

a snorting dragon whose hot breath set fire

to all it touched, lay with its wings outspread.

My Guide said: "That is Cacus."

12.25 x 10.75 inches
acrylic paint, collage, and ink on found paper
January 12, 2026

INFERNO, Canto XXV, illustration 1

Title: When he had finished, the thief -- to his disgrace--

raised his hands with both fists making figs,

and cried: "Here, God, I throw them in your face!"

10.125 x 6.375 inches
acrylic paint and collage on found paper
January 10, 2026

INFERNO, Canto IX, illustration 1 (alternate versions)

Title: "Once before, it is true, I crossed through Hell

conjured by cruel Erichtho who recalled

the spirits to their bodies. Her dark spell

forced me, newly stripped of my mortal part,

to enter through this gate, and summon out

a spirit from Judaica."

12.25 x 10.5 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
January 9, 2026

INFERNO, Canto VIII, illustration 2 (alternate version)

Title: And shortly after, I saw the loathesome spirit

so mangled by a swarm of muddy wraiths

that to this day I praise and thank God for it.

"After Filippo Argenti!" all cried together. 

The maddog Florentine wheeled at their cry

and bit himself for rage.

15.75 x 10.75 inches
acrylic paint and collage on found paper
January 5, 2026

INFERNO, Canto XXIV, illustration 4

Title: "I am Vanni Fucci, the beast. A mule among men,

I chose the bestial life above the human.

Savage Pistoia was my fitting den."

15.75 x 10.75 inches

acrylic paint, collage, and ink on found paper

December 30, 2025

INFERNO, Canto XXIV, illustration 3

Title: Precisely so, philosophers declare,

the Phoenix dies and then is born again

when it approaches its five hundredth year.

10.75 x 15.75 inches

acrylic paint on found paper

December 30, 2025