Michael Stone is an artist creating surreal, symbolic work under the Stoneworks name. The work explores memory, time, intuition, longing, wonder, and the quiet emotional spaces that exist beneath ordinary life. Recurring symbols appear throughout the artwork—cats, clocks, checkerboards, keys, balloons, doors, spirals, and ceremonial figures—each acting like fragments of a private language.
The paintings often feel like scenes from dreams or forgotten stories. Figures stand quietly in impossible rooms. Cats observe without speaking. Clocks bend, break, sleep, or drift through the air. Checkerboard worlds twist into endless spirals. The goal is not to explain these images completely, but to create a space where viewers can bring their own memories, questions, and emotions.
The Stoneworks style combines folk-surrealism, symbolic storytelling, ceremonial costume, and richly detailed pattern. Influences include the strange elegance of old myths, spiritual imagery, memory, music, surrealism, outsider art, and the feeling of discovering something both beautiful and slightly unsettling. Some pieces are calm and reflective. Others are vivid, dreamlike, and overwhelming. All are meant to feel personal, timeless, and emotionally honest.
Many of the recurring symbols carry specific meaning:
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- Cats represent the spirits of those who have passed—quiet presences that continue to inspire and guide the work.
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- Clocks symbolize the time viewers spend with the art, the time spent creating it, the time shared together here on earth, and the time that continues after we are gone.
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- Balloons represent hopes and prayers carried toward those who encounter the work.
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- The children who often hide within the pieces represent the people who will someday discover and experience the art in the future.
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- Checkerboards and spirals represent crossroads, uncertainty, and the feeling of moving between different inner worlds.
- Keys, doors, and hidden objects suggest memory, possibility, and the parts of the self that remain undiscovered.
The work is shared across multiple platforms, including original art, digital pieces, limited editions, NFTs, and behind-the-scenes process updates. While the platforms may differ, the goal remains the same: to build a body of work that feels meaningful, recognizable, and deeply human.