Skeleton Key

Artist 

Aaron Sheppard

56 x 38 x 6″

Oil, Acrylic, Spray Paint on Canvas with Carved Wood Elements (Framed)

About the Artwork 

Draped across a plush red settee with the coy posture of a 1950s pin-up, this skeleton isn’t here to haunt—it’s here to seduce. Painted in high contrast against a velvet-like backdrop, the skeletal figure is adorned with sultry red lips, thick black lashes, and heels that scream campy glamour. It’s a corpse in full drag, lounging in lingerie and mocking the very idea of decay.

The hand-carved wood frame—florid and baroque in style—encloses the piece like a stage or shrine, heightening its theatricality. Each curve and floral motif of the frame reads like a flourish in a eulogy, undercut by the work’s irreverent tone.

At its core, this piece delivers a biting satire on the intersection of sexuality and mortality. The French notion of la petite mort—orgasm as “the little death”—becomes literal here. The artist positions climax and collapse as twin experiences: the ecstasy of surrender, the absurdity of finality. The skeleton, frozen in a pose of seductive glee, forces the viewer to ask—what’s more intimate than death?

Price: $5,000