The story of artist Petra Shara Stoor

Anything may change at any given time. And sometimes change is given to you, right where you stand. In the shape of a dead object, for example. Or a living dead object, even.

It all started one cloudy day, during a walk in the deep dark forests of Hälsingland, Sweden. There it was - the remains of a deceased animal, halfway invisible due to grass and leaves. I brought the skull with me, took it in with no intention but to keep it as a memento of a magical day surrounded by trees and silence. No more, no less! But change was about to step in...

If one dares to stare into the face of death long enough to actually SEE, one might just find...life. And that's what happened, as those unseeing eyes kept returning my glance everyday as soon I stept into my studio. Thoughts arose, slowly turning into questions. That skull had not always been just a skull. Not long ago she belonged to a female moose. Who was she? How did she live? How did she die? Soon enough I started asking myself: Who might she... become?

From there my creative urges kicked in. I worked the whole night through, painting her, adorning her, giving her new life. Today we know her as Aruaa, and the process of creating, or rather recreating, her turned out to be the change that was given to me.

Aruaa is the true mother of everything related to Skulls & Bones Artwork, as the very foundation of my art is the balance and cycle of life/death. Inanimate skeletal parts, sometimes melding with steel, wood or other materials, are turned into living dead artwork, which in turn lives on forever in the eyes and minds of whoever's watching.

What began with a found skull is now an enterprise, where everything from the creating of skull artwork to exhibitions and full-scale art events take place. And our mission: to bring impression through expression, raising questions, thoughts and emotions, all through the experience of facing my living dead artwork.