This piece is a collaboration between Maria and friend Oriana G.G. Hirschberg. Inspired by the question and answer "what does it mean to be loved by death?" "no pain."  As asked in Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, Oriana has been using the No Pain motif in combination with personal relics as part of their work in designing cyanotype wearables. Both struggle with long term health issues and chronic pain and this phrase has been meaningful to both in accepting these states and in trying to make peace with mortality. No Fear references the Litany Against Fear in Frank Herbert's book Dune and its method of focusing the mind and emotions.  It reflects the attitudes that they are trying to project and some of the impact that speculative and gothic fiction have on our ways of perceiving the world and ways to continue living. No Fear and No Pain can be idealized states but they are also ways to reconcile the mental, physical, and emotional and keep us learning and moving forward.