Freedom rings in Leaving Home by Daniel Burns. Every bird must leave the nest eventually, but what if the nest is a cage? The forms at the bottom of the painting are enclosed, trapped, but by who or what? If society has trapped the birds, rendering them flightless, then the birds will grow accustomed to the cage and its contents. The birds must break free of the constraints of the cage in order to fly free like the figure at the top of the painting. Perhaps Burns is telling us not to get too comfortable, that we must learn to outgrow the bars of our cages and fly free.