Between Roots and Horizon: Youth, Wisdom, and the Courage to See Further
Acrylic on canvas, 80 × 60 cm
This painting begins from an Oron proverb that speaks to the limits of youthful vision when placed beside the wisdom of elders. Traditionally, the proverb reminds us that knowledge comes with time — that age grants perspective the young cannot yet reach.
Yet this work does not accept that idea without question.
Here, the child climbs upward, moving toward unfamiliar height and possibility, while the elder remains grounded — seated, watching, rooted. The composition creates a dialogue rather than a hierarchy. It asks: who is to say the child cannot see further, simply because they stand higher, closer to new horizons the elder cannot reach?
The child represents risk, exploration, and the courage to move beyond safety. Their ascent is not rebellion, but curiosity — the instinct to test limits and imagine beyond inherited boundaries. The elder, in contrast, embodies patience, reflection, and rootedness. Their stillness is not weakness, but depth — a connection to memory, history, and continuity.
Between them exists a necessary tension:
- tradition and innovation
- trauma and resilience
- safety and discovery
The red field surrounding the figures becomes a shared emotional ground — intense, protective, and alive. It is the same red that appears across my work: a space of origin, struggle, and belonging. Within it, culture does not stand still. It grows — not only by preserving wisdom, but by allowing new findings to emerge and be folded back into collective memory.
This painting honours both positions. It suggests that progress is not found by choosing between elder or child, but by allowing dialogue between them. Culture survives not through stillness alone, nor through reckless movement — but through balance, listening, and shared growth.
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