This piece is styled as a comic page, with tree roots separating each panel. The intended reading order is left to right, top to bottom. We begin at the entrance to life. Even before we are born, we are already affixed with certain labels, expectations, and conditions. The unembodied spirit bears wings in the shape of the seed of a maple tree, my Druid horoscope sign. Ironically, I do not relate at all to the characteristics of the maple tree sign, but I decided to include it to draw on the concept of nature versus nurture. I also didn’t want to accidentally draw on Christian angel symbology, so I tried to err on the side of fantasy and fairies. The next panel represents childhood, where we begin to make choices, but are generally guided or dragged through the bigger decisions. The third panel represents graduating to independence. People tend to reach this point at different times, or only in certain aspects of their lives; however, at some point almost everyone faces a moment where they are looking forward, trying to figure out their path and how to make their own choices. The fourth panel shows the character looking back through their memories, analyzing their present, and trying to predict their future. The future pictures are purposefully abstract, since their exact contents are impossible to predict. Finally, no matter where we start, we all end up in the same place. I wanted to represent the “beings” in a similar way as our first spirit, since all matter in the universe is recycled; we’re all made of stardust and dinosaurs. Since nobody knows for certain what happens when we die, everyone in the panel is marching towards an inevitable void of light, knowledge, life, and physical materiality. And with that, our character has reached the end of their journey.
