Solitary Confinement

"Go sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything"

Abbas Moses, Desert Father

The red oval in the center pushes against the enveloping black, alive and expansive against its own boundaries. The darkness provides a sheltering space, and the thin opening of white, a measure of breathing room. Art and spiritual vision are often born in confinement, when the spirit pressing against human limitations gains a greater urgency and finds a form in which to be released. How many visions have arisen within the solitary cell?

For a soul to flourish, the conditions must be right. Out of limitations and seemingly impossible circumstances, a human soul like a bulb forced into a small pot, will blossom. Put the bulb into a cool dark place, water it, and it starts to grow roots. Too much space, too much light, too much freedom may rob the soul and the gift within of its own actuality.

2003 Hondi Duncan Brasco