https://www.artpal.com/laurabernnelson/
Title: Disappearing Spine
Artist: Laura Bernardeschi Nelson
Medium: Oil Pastels on Paper (Hand & Palette Knife)
Artwork Size: ~20 x 30 cm
Framed in: 40 x 30 cm IKEA Frame
Signed front and back | Varnished
Disappearing Spine is a haunting meditation on the fragility of the body and the quiet, persistent ache of transformation. Rendered in melting purples and surrounded by a halo of aqua and cobalt blue, this figure hovers in a poised tree pose—a gesture of balance, but also vulnerability. The work speaks directly to the themes in Laura Bernardeschi Nelson’s memoir The Pose That Hurt, exploring the tension between resilience and disappearance.
Here, the figure does not stand solidly but flickers—fading into light, muscle turning to vapor. The body’s edges dissolve into the atmosphere, as though spirit and skin are no longer in agreement. There is pain, yes, but also transcendence. With the sweep of a palette knife and smudged fingers, Nelson captures that liminal moment when strength becomes surrender.
This is not a yoga pose for the sake of calm. It is a confrontation. A tracing of old wounds. A visual echo of holding too much for too long.
Disappearing Spine invites viewers to sit with their own discomforts. It reminds us that balance is not always stillness—it can be the act of continuing, even as parts of us fade.
Title: The Bell and the Binding
Artist: Laura Bernardeschi Nelson
Medium: Oil Pastels on Paper (Hand & Palette Knife)
Artwork Size: ~20 x 30 cm
Framed in: 40 x 30 cm IKEA Frame
Signed front and back | Varnished
The Bell and the Binding is a ceremonial portrait of reckoning and release. In this richly symbolic work, Laura Bernardeschi Nelson presents a female figure from behind, cloaked in firelight and shadow, her back turned but her energy unmistakably forward-facing. The wings shimmer with threadlike precision—part insect, part veil, part scar—and in each hand she holds an instrument: a bell and a looped chain, or perhaps a halo unraveling.
This is not a passive angel. This is a being forged from grief and willpower, a custodian of endings and beginnings. With tones of burnt orange, ember gold, and soot-black, the artist evokes both sanctity and exhaustion. The figure becomes a kind of altar—her arms stretched not in surrender, but in ritual motion.
The bell dangles like a warning or invitation. The rings twist like questions or vows. The backdrop blazes like a curtain about to rise—or fall.
Deeply connected to The Pose That Hurt, this piece channels the unspoken aftermath of pain: the tools we inherit, the roles we shed, and the choices we carry when no one is watching. It is both elegy and empowerment. A guardian of silence. A mirror to anyone who has ever stood alone, luminous and burdened, at the edge of transformation.
Laura Bernardeschi Nelson artworld and travels 