a thousand words
STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK
Island
MANY EXTRAORDINARY PAINTINGS DEAL with funerals, and, like the events themselves, the images have more to do with the living than the deceased. Death asks big questions that, despite our accumulation of knowledge, remain unanswered. Or, for many, the answers remain unacceptable. Sometimes we prefer fabricated explanations to none. I’m confident that when we die, we go back to where we came from, and this time we spend here is what we get, in all its meaning and inconsequence. I’m not afraid, but I’m not eager. The death of anyone we know brings a lot into perspective. It calls for passing torches, restating positions, and allocating responsibilities. Our culture does its part to make it a mysterious and sometimes macabre experience. A lot of feelings get mixed up in it. Love and fear. Outward and inward. Pain, grief, and occasionally, relief. But it’s an inevitable part of life wherever you look. Death is not the goal, but it is the line.
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ICON | JULY/AUGUST 2021 | ICONDV.COM
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