'The Life We Lead, The Life We Leave': free will versus predestination

When, after a long creative drought, I took up my own artwork again a couple of years ago, I almost exclusively worked with ink and watercolours. I even dedicated this blogpost to my love, if not passion for ink as a medium best suited for me to express my creativity.

But, off late, other materials and techniques have made their way into the realm of Witty Art. With some really surprisingly good results. Series like 'Once Upon A Time Never Happened!' and 'Redemption Day Is Not Installed' are perfectly good examples of that, as well as many of the Singles I created in the course of 2015.

And so is this series 'The Life We Lead, The Life We Leave', which features a God-like Bear-figure, who seems to possess almost divine powers and imposes these in a rather unscruplous way on seemingly non-suspecting mortals.

In a way, to me this series deals a lot the concept of free will versus predestination, but not in a very direct way. It's more an omninous presence of something 'about to happen', something of which you know will happen, but not what and when exactly. And there is nothing you can to prevent or stop it from happening because it's all been decided for you, by some Being far more powerful than you.

It's a feeling I think we all battle with every now and then. And that is's sometimes just mpossible to shake off. The feeling that, no matter how hard your work or how much you give or how many sacrifices you make, you just can't seem to change the course of your own life.

It's a very daunting and intimidating feeling. It leaves you powerless and incapacitated.

I have written before that there is a part of my art that leaves very little room for stuff like hope and forgiveness. It's a very dark, cold and lonely place - but it's a place that has every right to exist, because there, too, live creatures that try to survive and get by, one hard day at a time. Without them, without this part of my world, the rest simply cannot be.

So, yes, this too is one of my more personal series and putting them online, showcasing them, sharing them with the world, leaves me vulnerable. But, I still want to do it. Because I think it, it represents a very important part of my work and of myself as an creator, and as a person.