Kicking Your Crosses Down - (Circa Survive Inspired Art)

A Milestone in My Art Journey

Hitting 50 completed pieces feels surreal. With this one, I wanted to visually interpret Kicking Your Crosses Down by Circa Survive, a track from their 2007 album On Letting Go. The song’s themes of disillusionment, faith, and defiance spoke to me, especially the line:

“Purchase your ticket, I’m kicking your crosses down.”

This lyric inspired my central imagery, a skeletal hand holding a burning Admit One: Salvation ticket. It represents a rejection of forced belief systems and the tension between faith, freedom, and consequence.

Symbolism & Inspiration

Circa Survive’s music blends post-hardcore, emo, and progressive rock with deeply poetic lyrics. On Letting Go explores existential doubt, loss, and personal transformation, and this song in particular feels both rebellious and reflective.

I wanted to capture that reckoning with belief and control through my design. The skeletal hand, symbolizing death, permanence, and truth, grips a salvation ticket engulfed in flames. There’s no turning back, no redemption, just an acceptance of fate.

The song’s lyrics suggest a struggle with faith:

“We’re all going to hell, but we won’t be saved. We’ll live as slaves to love.”

That push and pull between fear, devotion, and rejection influenced my use of bright, contrasting colors, deep blues, fiery reds, and acid greens, to create a vintage, screen-printed feel.

Process & Artistic Style

For this piece, I used Retro Supply Co. brushes, which gave it a gritty, textured look reminiscent of old-school tattoo art and vintage punk posters. Their brushes add a rawness that fits the emotional weight of Circa Survive’s music.

The bold, limited color palette was intentional, each hue plays into the song’s themes:

🟣 Deep purples & blues → Mystery, doubt, and the unknown
🟡 Acidic yellows & greens → Corruption, transformation
🔴 Fiery reds & oranges → Rebellion, destruction, passion