Inspired by The Little Mermaid, this painting embodies the duality within the human psyche—the relentless will to live versus Thanatos, the instinct toward destruction and death. As humans navigate the brutal realities of life—despair, betrayal, poverty, and inequality—many succumb to Thanatos, while others desperately cling to dreams, illusions, and reveries to endure suffering. Yet, in a world governed by ruthless capitalism, even dreams are denied. Love, once thought to be pure, becomes a contract of profit and loss, where emotions alone cannot sustain it. The little mermaid's tragic fate mirrors this cruel reality—she dissolves into nothingness, her love unrecognized, her existence erased like bubbles fading into the abyss. Unlike the traditional mermaid, the artist’s subject is a male figure, emphasizing an unyielding desire—whether ambition, love, or self-expression—gradually foaming away, dissolving one by one. His golden lips, slightly parted, symbolize a voice longing to be heard, yet the ocean’s suffocating silence denies him speech. Like the mermaid who sacrificed her voice for human legs, he too is muted, trapped in a world where unspoken desires drown under the weight of reality. His silver hair sways under the immense pressure of the deep, while black dust—symbols of death and decay—rises like an octopus’s inky defense, grasping at fading hopes. His face, darkened by the suffocating depths, reflects the slow loss of oxygen, of vitality, of existence itself. Yet, in this fading moment, the bubbles remain. Small, ephemeral, yet persistent, they console the dying dreamer—silent witnesses to yet another soul lost to the inescapable tides of fate.