Wings of Unreaching Success
Kim L.
Color pencils, acrylic paint, wires, oven-bake clay, paper cut into strips + drawing paper, chains, graphite
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This 8-foot piece explores the cost of striving and the ambiguity of success. The central figure climbs toward a 3D wing emerging from a painted image of Milo of Croton, the ancient Olympian who died from his pride. The wing symbolizes the dual reality of ambition: aspiration and transcendence versus the self-destruction of grasping the unreachable. Around the figure’s chained feet, handwritten text forms a storm of self-doubt. These chains, forged from past success, became anchors, binding me to the expectation that "excellence" must be endlessly repeated. The chaotic paper strips mirror the mental noise of self doubt. In contrast, four small but real memories (joy, connection, expression) anchor the piece, reminding me that success is not always the goal, a summit. The mandala, a symbol of wholeness, acts as a counter-balance. It suggests that fulfillment is not found in the external "wing" of public achievement, but through inner integration.
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Creativity means to me the ability to express your thoughts with clarity in a way different from others, hence my favorite field form of art being large-scale mixed media. I believe creativity is how we all each see the world differently and how we interpret the similarities we share.
