"The gold of silence"

On the canvas — a fragment. Just half of an elephant's head. But in that fragment lies the weight of the earth, its wisdom, its silence. Thick textured paste transforms the canvas into a surface you want to touch: the elephant’s skin feels warm, rough, real.

Transparent streaks slide down from its ears — like water, like memory, or like tears that remain unseen. The elephant doesn’t cry — it simply carries its silence, as if it were the weight of gold.

Brown, ochre, and golden tones give the image an almost icon-like presence — as if the elephant is not just an animal, but a symbol: of memory, of slow feeling, of depth. This is a painting about how silence can speak, how a surface can tell a story, and how even an incomplete image can be whole.

"The gold of silence"

by Veranika Khvorashch

Half a head, but whole the weight,
Of silent earth and patient fate.
A brow like stone, an ancient skin,
Holds every voice that speaks within.

No trumpet sounds, no tear is shown,
Just golden stillness, carved in tone.
From heavy ears, a shimmer slips—
Like distant rain on memory’s lips.

This isn't grief, it isn’t peace,
It’s something older, deep, and fierce.
Where silence leans in thick repose,
And even fragments fully glow.