When I hear the word sulphur, I think about its role in homeopathy, where each remedy has certain personality traits and physical symptoms associated with it. A remedy is prescribed by matching a person’s symptoms and traits with the corresponding remedy. Homeopathically, sulphur is associated with persons who are delusional and believe that they are extremely wealthy,yet are extremely lazy and selfish, and irritable and depressed.  Physically, sulphur patients tend to suffer from symptoms involving heat and burning, redness of the skin, and numerous other skin ailments.

Unsure as to how I could portray this in an 11″ square, I chose to go in another direction, this time portraying sulphur as the biblical image of fire and brimstone. Fire and brimstone (possibly an ancient word for sulphur) frequently appear in the Old and New Testaments as a sign of God’s wrath, and also refers to a style of preaching used to convert others using fear of damnation.