"Ojo-san Leaving" Print on 1.25in. Canvas (8x10, 16x20, 20x24, 24x30, 30x40)

These are 300dpi prints of originals on 1.25" thick canvas, captured in sunlight and uploaded as raw unprocessed files.

This is "Ojo-san Leaving", which means "young lady (or princess) leaving". The term Ojo doubles in meaning by also having an interpretation in the Buddhist sense, "rebirth in the pure land of The Buddha".

The piece revealed itself in the action of a strong and explosive abstract beginning. She showed herself - a beautiful Japanese princess in traditional Kabuki-like makeup donning powerful, royal-looking attire. As she is moving to the left of the canvas, it feels as if she is leaving, moving away from something significant to her soul, a part of her core, the close of this high chapter in her story, a vital aspect of herself. She looks back over her shoulder to the right of the canvas composed with even a soft smile, but face streaked with tears which fall away from her cheek floating off the right of the canvas by the gravity of the past as she is vortex'd, dissembled, reanimated by a foreign and mysterious green force pulling her into her future. 

To me, "Ojo-san Leaving" is about knowing the time to move on, and understanding that the composition of who we are always remains in some way inextricably linked to our past. Even still, with tearful nostalgia, and immense love and appreciation for what has been, the electric newness of what the future holds obliterates old structures and systems, offering a truly new way of life. It never feels good to leave something that was once worth staying for - especially not when the leaving is well after the sweetness has gone - but knowing the time to go, and heeding the call to reinvent oneself is something like a tide we can't help feeling and knowing in our hearts. It is the true test of the faith we leave behind, and the love we hold silently for the rest of our lives.