this is probably my favorite painting i've done. for a couple of reasons, the first being my undying love for the little prince, my second being my undying love for nathan alexander haskell.most of the paintings i did when i realized that painting is the most incredible did to do had to do with a concept i was pretty besotted with called "sehnsucht." like most concepts that strike a chord, it is german and untranslatable and pretentious as fuck.
but. my understanding of it, when i painted this around four years ago, went something like this: sehnsucht is somewhat akin to nostalgia. it's the itch we feel for the womb, for a savior, for a sense - an absolute and unquestioning sense - of belonging.
it's what prompted the little prince to tack himself onto a wandering flock of birds. it's that discontent that gurgles up every now and then, egging us on to grow up and out.
it in a lot of ways defined nathan and me back then. we yearned for an emancipation from the confines of our religious surroundings and our adolescent skins. we wanted out, or more accurately, we wanted up.
i painted nathan growing up from Saint-Exupery's beautiful illustration into a lifelike portrait, from watercolor into acrylic, from a dream into a reality. there is no elation here, so i guess the general message of the thing is that up isn't out at all. we'll never stop searching... or something silly like that.
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