Hero

Every journey has a moment of full commitment, the instant before the sword meets the sky, when turning back is no longer an option.

Hero is that moment.

She stands in the hills of Montara, California, that isolated, windswept stretch of the Coastside where the morning light comes in golden and full of promise. A red moon hangs overhead. A hawk, a raven, a coyote, and a rabbit gather as witnesses. Wild lupine and fennel bloom at her feet. A golden threshold frames the world she is stepping into.

I painted her during a time when I ran those hills every morning and kept encountering animals on the trail , a hawk landing too close, a coyote watching from the ridge, a raven following overhead. I became certain they were harbingers. Messengers. I didn't yet know what they were telling me. I just kept running. I kept painting.

Hero is based on the Hero's Journey, the oldest story humans tell about transformation. But she isn't a myth. She is every person who has ever stood at a threshold, terrified and committed at the same time, and chosen to raise the sword anyway.

She has been waiting for the right wall.

Original acrylic on canvas. One of a kind.

16x20x2