A fugitive does not hide himself in a maze. He does not build himself a labyrinth on a bluff overlooking the sea, a crimson labyrinth that can be sighted from afar by any ship’s crew. He has no need to erect a labyrinth when the whole world already is one.

–Jorge Luis Borges, Ibn Hakkan Al-Bokhari – Dead in His Labyrinth, 1949

I have been intrigued with the idea of labyrinths for some time. The idea of an intricate Maze with only one way out that is nearly impossible to find which holds at its center something either very valuable or very horrible is useful in a variety of metaphors. We often erect labyrinths of sorts in our lives for many reasons– to keep people at a distance, to feel secure, to maintain our privacy and hide our secrets, etc.

But the maze meant to keep people away sometimes traps us within it.

Finding one’s way out of their own self-built labyrinths can offer more peril than that from which we sought refuge when initially erecting that maze. One twists and winds in frustration and despair while trying to find a way out and occasionally there is a glimpse that seems to offer the sought reward.

It appears near at hand, just past the next bend. But then the labyrinth twists in a direction that suddenly has the seeker feeling altogether lost once more.

I am writing this off the cuff this morning so how this ties into the painting at the top might seem a bridge too far for some. The painting is titled Faraway Near which I get from that feeling in the maze of being about to find the solution then having it suddenly disappear. Or of thinking you are close to knowing something or someone then discovering in a flash that they are far removed from what you initially thought.

Many of us set ourselves in the center of a maze– or on a visible but distant island, hiding in plain sight– that is difficult to reach. I am not saying this is right or wrong. It’s just seems to be the way it is.

I live, in a way, on my own little island. It is visible for all to see but a hard place on which to land. A place in which I can hide in plain sight.

Faraway near.

This painting is 18″ by 18″ on canvas and is included in the 30th Anniversary exhibit which opens Friday at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.