I hope that my paintings ask more questions than they give answers.
But I figured it wouldn't hurt to help to share a little bit of what was going through my mind while working on this piece.
I can do nothing without God. The man in the painting is submissive, weak, helpless, longing for help... yet he struggles on anyways with everything he has left. That's how I like to think of perseverance; you give it everything you've got, keep going in the midst of adversity, but recognize that you really can't do anything alone. To think that you did would spite all of your friends, family, teachers, loved ones, and God himself.
Or maybe the man in the painting is giving. Maybe he is offering up everything he has in pursuit of that one goal, that one vision. But his body is bare and his hands are empty; he has nothing to offer that justifies his worth, his salvation from the ocean storm... a posture of worship.
Finding yourself on the shore,
Free of the tempestuous waves.
Defeated and humbled.
Broken, yet alive.
Not knowing how you got here,
But only that there is something, or someone, watching over you.