Free Man on a Curve

On the Curve

There is a song by Agnieszka Osiecka, one of Poland's best-loved poets, called "Na zakręcie", "On the Curve".

In it, a woman tells a man that she is standing on a curve. From where she stands, everything looks different from how he sees it: what is right for her is left for him, where he sees ordinary furniture she sees a tree split in two, and even the sky looks tilted.

The song speaks clearly about a problem in a relationship, but it can be read more widely. It fits so many moments when we feel we are on a curve, when something in our life is changing. These moments, which come to every one of us, inspired me to paint this picture.

My hero, a free man, is not only on a curve. He stands where many curves branch off, and he has to decide which one to take as the direction of the road ahead. As the title tells us, he is free. Nothing holds him back. He can decide regardless of any circumstances.

Are there ever such situations in life? Are we ever completely free? And yet, for all his freedom, he must choose from what he has been given to choose from.

The cool blue calms his emotions and invites a rational decision. The mountains on the horizon watch in silence as this small human figure, on the vast plain of the landscape, makes some choice, a choice that means nothing from the point of view of the ancient mountain range. Human dramas come and pass, and the monumental landscape of the earth goes on.

Is it worth reminding ourselves of this through a painting? I don't know, but I felt the need to paint it. I wanted to hold in it something elusive, something beyond our everyday experience.