PETER HORST
A Portrait Before Departure
Oil on canvas
60 x 45cm
It would require courage from any of us, to get up each morning with a brave face, to spend the day fulfilling our duties and catering to our responsibilities – for the community, our loved ones, and ourselves. To do so with the knowledge that one is counting down their last days, the last few moments of peace, requires a different courage unto itself. When the daunting task echoes our name in the quiet of chance moments, the pressure descends upon us, surmounting our minds steadily until the day that duty calls. This experience of uncertainty and ambiguity that holds a person imprisoned is what I attend to in this painting. For us to understand how it feels so as not to trivialize it, to recognize their courage and not forget, and to understand our privilege and place in history.
