Prying

An ode to the ugly side of striving for transcendence and enlightenment. Too often we are told of the success stories of those who have achieved but seldom see the struggle of how they got there, or how they overcame the egoic traps we set for ourselves. The pressure that society and culture puts on us to conform is, perhaps, the largest obstacle for those seeking to walk their own unique path. In many works of art on this subject I have only seen the end goal; the peace and serenity. In Prying, I wanted to show the anguish.

Artist's Note: This piece is extremely important to me and the result of months of hard work. For much of my life I feel I have been in a rigorous struggle to break free from the insidious beliefs and patterns that wish to keep me down or even pull me under. Prying was an adaptation of an oil painting I created years ago that hangs on my wall. It symbolizes the brutal, grueling, and seemingly unrelenting struggle to transcend, reach enlightenment, or whatever woefully inadequate word one could use for such an indefinable concept.

I focused on mood evoking compositions, stark contrasts in form, energy, values, and pacing. I also pushed technical boundaries on simulations and scene and material complexity. Prying exists to show that although the struggle may be supremely onerous, we can all molt, we can all break free from the body and even the mind. Transcend the physical vessels that we deem to be the limits of our reality.