“The Lost Boy”

Oil pastel, gouache, graphite, on muslin.  5 x 6 inches

I was just thinking about a little boy I used to know – he was so full of imagination and creativity – but his parents were threatened by his unique way of seeing life.  When he was very young he believed the world was full of wonder and his place in it was natural and right.  As he grew,  the critical attitude of his mother and the disinterest of his father naturally had an effect on him.  Now he is a young teenager and struggling with unhappiness and self-doubt.  He has lost his belief that there is a rightful place in this world for him and his pinned on cape has long been forgotten.  He knows he will never figure out who he was meant to be – but now must become what his mother, and now his step-father, have in mind for him.  He looks so sad because he is.