Beautiful Skulls Carved and Painted on Mother of Pearl Shells

New Jersey-based artist Gregory Halili creates stunning bas-relief skulls delicately hand-carved and painted on mother of pearl shells. Inspired by the lush vegetation and tropical wildlife of the Philippines, where he was born and raised, Halili fuses the human form with the natural world in these lovely, intricate works of art.
The artist prefers to work with gold-lip and black-lip mother of pearl found in shells collected from the Philippines, first carving them by hand and then using oil paint to dab muted tones of color onto the iridescent surface. Halili's meticulous work is so subtle that it's hard to tell where the mother of pearl's natural sheen ends and the oil paint begins, effectively blending the manmade skull with the natural beauty of the shell together in an exploration of life, death, and rebirth.