“Out of Misery”

2015 | 9”x12” | Mixed-media:
Prismacolor Verithin red/blue colored pencil, Derwent Inktense pencils, white charcoal, and water brush on cold press watercolor paper.
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Attraction is a funny thing. Are we attracted to those whose pain we want to alleviate? Or are we attracted to those who can understand our own pain? Or is it merely a question of what is familiar and thus comfortable?

The masked girl recognizes in the crow a mirror of her own pain. She does not see that while she has chosen to remain in place—her gown binding her to where she stands—his perch is rooted and unmovable. Like the bending reed to his mighty oak, will she weather the storm by breaking herself? Or will she learn to bend with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?

“OUT OF MISERY” begs the question, what are we drawing these attachments for? Are we so vain to believe we can bring the object of our limerent affection out of their own misery with the gift of our love? Or is the truth perhaps more selfish? Is the misery we truly want to put an end to actually only our own?