Silent Withdrawal, 2020

Emerging from the mysterious imagery of my liminal sketching process, Silent Withdrawal explores the quiet power of disengagement. A monumental, mask-like visage rises from a desolate landscape, its expression unreadable. From one eye extends an arm bearing a solitary key, suspended above a dark fissure in the earth. The key suggests the power to unlock what has been concealed, yet the figure seems neither to offer it nor to surrender it. Instead, it holds the possibility of revelation in a state of perpetual suspension.

At its heart, the painting concerns the moment when confrontation gives way to acceptance, when the need for explanation or vindication is finally abandoned. There are relationships and conflicts from which the only meaningful resolution is departure. No grand reckoning, no final accusation, no demand for understanding—only the recognition that some doors are best left unopened. In this sense, withdrawal becomes neither defeat nor forgiveness, but an assertion of sovereignty over one's own peace. Sometimes the most profound response is silence.

Reverse: The ovoid panel of the painting is mounted on another panel with a smaller ovoid extraction. The result on the reverse is an ovoid relief in which I have loosely painted a scene from the journey of an unknown Saint through a nightmarish landscape under a hazy moon. Perhaps a study for another painting in the future.