You Must Change Your Life

You Must Change Your Life is a series of paintings inspired by the life and writings of Rainer Maria Rilke. The works include portraits depicting the poet at different stages of his life, alongside paintings that emerged intuitively while reading his poetry and letters.

The title comes from the closing line of Rilke’s poem Archaic Torso of Apollo, a sentence that has continued to resonate across generations because of its directness and emotional force. For me, it speaks not only to personal transformation, but to the experience of truly encountering art, beauty, solitude, and inner change.

At its core, You Must Change Your Life reflects an ongoing interest in how art can alter perception and deepen one’s relationship to the inner world. The series is both a tribute to Rilke and a personal meditation on transformation, attention, and the lifelong process of becoming.