"Journey" Oil on Canvas, 61
cm x 61 cm, 1996
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"Journey" —
An Early
Work. He doesn't speak. He doesn't need to. I
painted him blue — deliberately moving away from ordinary skin tones, away from
what a portrait is supposed to be, toward what a person feels like.
The blue is
night and distance and dust and truth all at once. His hat is low, his face
weathered, his beard touched with time. And his eyes — his eyes look straight at
you. Not past you, not through you. Into you.
His mouth is closed. There are no
words. But everything is there in that gaze. The miles walked. The work done.
The road behind him and the road still ahead.
Who is he? Where has he come from
and where is he going? Is he about to ask you something? Or is he trying to
tell you something you already know?
This is the painting that asks you to
stop.When you stand in front of Journey, you find yourself reflected back. Can
you see a piece of yourself in his expression?
That quiet endurance, that
question without words, that moment on every journey when you pause and look a
stranger in the eyes and recognize your own humanity ?
Journey is not just his
journey. It is yours, too.
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