Every day the news is filled with heartbreaking stories about people making arduous journeys into the unknown. They are leaving a bad situation and hoping to find something better. It may not be much better but perhaps, their children will benefit.
I am part of the broad American middle class. I live in a place and time where journeys like this are unthinkable. I am thankful for the comfort and stability I have luckily inherited. Yet… ? The imbalance and unfairness of Life befuddles me and makes me ashamed of my comfortable and predictable situation. This contradiction finds its way into my pictures (another privilege!) where some story is leaking out:
- two birds on a colorful container ship out on the high seas. They wonder what is inside the steel containers.
- What if they were filled with other creatures? Animals who have perhaps lost their freedom and are being sold into servitude or the circus.
- Or could it be a modern Noah's Ark full of hope for resettlement and the future in a new Promised Land.
- Without hope, the journey is a despair filled Middle Passage. With hope, it's a desperate race against time to find that land that barrel bombs cannot reach. How nice!
- Which story will emerge from my mind? I do not know yet.
