Architectus Cupiditatis | Blake Emory | Original Oil Painting

Original oil painting with gold leaf by Blake Emory · Painter, sculptor, and filmmaker · Available at Marcolina’s Fine Arts Gallery, Tampa, Florida · Ships worldwide

A woman in a red off-the-shoulder gown turns in profile in Architectus Cupiditatis, and where her head should be is a hawk’s: pale gold feathers, a sharp green-yellow eye, and a hooked beak just parted. A pink rose with teal leaves rests against her shoulder. On the left the feathers break apart into flakes of real gold leaf and blue-green shapes that stream back across a dark navy and violet background, so the head looks like it is coming apart into the air as she moves.

The idea behind the painting is one particular moment in the mind: the first crossroads people reached after leaving pure instinct behind and growing a mammalian mind. Desire is the architect of that mind, the thing that starts building plans, wants, and thoughts. The hawk is instinct at its sharpest. The gown, the ribbon, and the rose are everything desire dresses itself up as. Blake keeps both in one body.

The title is Latin, roughly architect of desire, though cupiditas carries greed in it too. The setup is a formal Renaissance portrait, the drapery, the gown, the flower, and then the beak opens. The gold coming off the left side is what stays with you. It can read as instinct burning away, or as desire spreading out and building something. Both can be true at once.

Collector’s Note

At 50 by 60 inches, this is a large original, and the gold leaf is the thing to plan around. It catches light differently as you move and as the day changes, and a photograph flattens it, so the painting is worth seeing in person or on a virtual viewing. The warm gold and red against the dark navy ground makes it a strong anchor for a wall, and it holds its own in a room with a lot going on.

Acquisition

Available through Marcolina’s Fine Arts Gallery with worldwide shipping, full insurance, and professional art packaging. Payment plans available. Private viewings by appointment in Tampa, Florida. Virtual viewings available for collectors anywhere in the world. Payment plans are arranged directly with Marcolina, and every inquiry is answered personally within 24 hours. Each original comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. Contact us to inquire. New to collecting? Read our collector guide →

A standard shipping rate is charged at checkout. Once your work is packed, we calculate the actual shipping cost for its size and destination. If there is a difference, we will follow up to either invoice the additional amount or refund the difference, whichever applies.

About the Artist

Blake Emory was born in 1983 and raised in Plant City, Florida, in a family of artists, inventors, and musicians. Alongside his brother James, creativity was the family language: music, theater, sculpture, set design, and mural and canvas painting, all treated as one continuous practice. He sold his first drawing in third grade and has not really stopped since.

Painting and sculpture became the throughline. He debuted his Zebra Love Collection at Art Basel Miami in 2014, made the life-size Babe Ruth sculpture now at the St. Petersburg Museum of History, and has painted large murals across Tampa Bay and New Mexico. His giant octopus mural at Cage Brewing in St. Petersburg, painted with Guillo Pérez 3, was named by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay among the area’s must-see murals.

He also works in film. His short The Ethereal: Episode I was shown at the Salvador Dalí Museum and premiered at Tampa Theater in 2025, and a second episode is in production. He lives and works in St. Petersburg, Florida, and his original paintings and sculpture are available through Marcolina’s Fine Arts Gallery.

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