When I visited Freedom House I think the part that hit me was that these people didn’t choose to be in this position, and it was due to circumstances that were out of their control. The things life throws our way can just take us off the path we intended to follow. Being homeless was never on anyone’s plans and staying homeless is the one thing they all want to overcome. So for Freedom House, with those thoughts in mind, I wanted to create a piece that would be a visual for overcoming the difficulties that life can throw our way. A cyclist is featured smiling as she pedals up a steep hill that is being drawn by a hand. She is supposed to represent us and facing our challenges with positivity and the mentality that the end of the trouble is right over the horizon. This can be seen as the steepness of the hill begins to straighten out.
The hand can be interpreted as either God laying out your path or just life laying out obstacles. I wanted to leave that open to make it more accessible and relatable to anyone looking at it. The mission of Freedom House is related to Christian values so I did wanted to provide something that could align with their values. The size is also something I really liked. It comes out to 5×7 inches so it can be something you hold in your hands and look at. I like pieces that are small and precious, and those aspects really compliment the project overall and make the detail something you have to look for.
The coloring underneath was something fun to experiment with since it was my first time using watercolors since I was in elementary school. It was interesting to try out different colors and blends to achieve something that enhances the piece. It can be seen as an underlying beauty that the cyclist doesn’t see beneath her. Like a beautiful thing being created underneath her struggle up this hill.
In terms of an inspiration, I can’t really point to a single piece that really inspired it. The origin of the line the piece is based on, “God gave you what you can handle,” is from a song called “Biking.” I can say that the image of a hand as a representative of God also comes from all the Monty Python movies I’ve seen. The rest of is I would say came from seeing what looked best compositionally.
