I created this recent painting from an amalgam of dream experiences and events in my life. After completing the piece I began to think of this question:
At what point do we feel free when we fall?
Is it when we no longer feel as if we are falling, because we have fully committed to the experience, that we feel a sense of liberty?
Of course, I hope you all know I do not mean literally jumping from a cliff, which I used to do as a 20yr old in the old quarries of Vermont.
I’m speaking of metaphorical falling, in which the fear of falling represents a fear of something that we carry within ourselves. I believe it necessitates a ‘leap of faith’ to exorcise one’s particular fear: the experience of falling requires one to be active, and knowingly engage - by jumping.
Perhaps in the descent we find ourselves.
More next time
Nicholas Emery
December 2020