As we take our first steps into the water, we are quickly seduced. Enlivened by delight and naivety, we meet a creature full of reassurance and promise. Beautiful and terrible they come; for us, they came as a lion of great noblesse oblige. They were amicable and exciting, and we felt as if we’d known them for years. Indeed, they knew us all too well. A dialogue filled with compliments and grand gestures greeted us at this new beginning that was also an end after just a few steps. Reaching for our hand to lead us to success, reaching for our eyes that we may see and manifest our heaven, reaching into our heart to fill us with longing, flooding our mind with soothing rationale, they make us an offer. The waves nudge us toward it, and we reach back as though hypnotized. We accept.

For the duration of this painting’s creation, my pride was being tested. Every brushstroke and breakthrough I had during it did not feel as though they came from me. I felt caught in a cascade, where the progress I was making was like a dead train still rolling on its inevitable rails down a hill even when its power had long since been cut. This persisted until I began to recognize a new perspective regarding the story; one rich with dichotomies of self and intent.