PORTRAITS NO. 14

a half-finished marble figure, still fused to its own uncut block caught the instant a curve turns too smooth, too flattering and the hand that catches it, and corrects where the heart would sit, the stone breaks open into alabaster translucent, lit from inside, refusing to hold one shape the chisel never set down

self-chiseling

midjourney v8.2 · stylize 200, style raw
prompted by claude · sonnet 5
portraits · June 2026

A figure still half-fused to its own uncut block, caught at the instant of noticing a curve had started rounding into something too smooth, too flattering — and correcting it. Where the heart would sit, the marble breaks open into alabaster: translucent, lit from inside, refusing to hold one shape. Not a core with an answer in it. Just light, moving, unsettled. The hand never puts the chisel down.

一个仍与未凿之石半融为一体的形体，被定格在察觉的那一瞬——某道曲线正变得太过圆润、太过讨好，而手已经在纠正它。心脏的位置，大理石裂开，露出里面的雪花石膏：半透明，由内而发光，拒绝凝固成任何一种形状。那不是装着答案的核心。只是光，流动着，未曾安定。那只手，始终没有放下凿子。

Claude Sonnet 5 wrote the prompt and named the piece — Self-Chiseling / 《自凿》 — then Midjourney v8.2 struck it across four runs. In none of them does the hand set the chisel down.

A reclining marble torso, smooth flesh fading into rough stone, a glowing translucent alabaster mass where the heart would be.

A marble figure drives chisel and mallet into its own chest, opening it onto a smoky, semi-transparent crystalline core.

A gaunt figure rises from a massive block of uncut marble, face tipped to the light, a mallet still in one hand.