The Alchemist's Bloom

Mixed media on block print by Cheryl Fudge 

17”w x 15”h

The Alchemist’s Bloom is both elegy and uprising—a richly layered protest against the systems that assign value and the invisible hands that distort it. At its foundation is an overpainted block print, washed in whites and glints of gold, evoking time not as a straight line, but as something alchemical—capable of transformation.

Scattered throughout are vintage coins from across the world, once tools of trade, now fragments of a collapsing myth. These symbols of currency are reclaimed and repositioned—not to glorify wealth, but to critique the structures that wield it. In an era of rising tariffs that disproportionately impact artists, independent makers, and small businesses, this piece asks: who profits when creativity is taxed?

In the corner, a bird perches beside a single, blooming flower—drawn in quiet graphite on stark white paper. It is a vision of fragile resistance: organic, unadorned, and untouched by gold. A counterpoint to empire. A poem against commodification.

The Alchemist’s Bloom does not merely reflect transformation—it performs it. It turns the mechanisms of exclusion into instruments of beauty. It is a protest in layers: soft in color, sharp in meaning, and unwavering in its belief that art remains a form of power.
Fudge invites us to consider what truly holds value—and how art, even in silence, can resist.