Cage

In The Dictionary of the Khazars (a book I recommend highly), Milorad Pavic writes of a swordsman trapped in a cage of his own swordstrokes. I've been fascinated with the image since I first read it, and return to it regularly. I should probably paint it to exorcise it from my imagination.

The things that occupy us shape how we perceive the world-- or at least, how we interpret our perceptions. This fellow may be imprisoned by his chosen path, but am I similarly snared, not by strokes of a sword, but those of a brush or pencil?