Mercy

The frame is included in the price.

*I encourage you to take in the work from your own perspective. You don't have to read my interpretation of this painting to enjoy it*

How I was thinking about this work changed a lot as I progressed through it.

Painting candles in the fracture of time before they are washed away in the foam of the ocean, I kept thinking about hope and helplessness. We can work and strive, but ultimately larger forces have their way with us. In the beginning, it was about that sense of inevitability, insignificance. But later in the process, the collection of candles kept reminding me of an altar. Now, I'm not religious in the slightest, but the phrase "this is my church" popped into my head: thinking about the ocean, and nature, as the deity to which we are all subject.

By the end though it came back to inevitability. Although it had started with insignificance in the face of inevitability, it changed into appreciation. The candles won't escape the ocean. The flames will go out. But that is not the same as if they had never burned.