Finding The Painter, 2026

David Akolo  

Every journey begins by learning from those who came before us. We follow, we imitate, and we search for certainty, believing that if we take the same steps, we will arrive at the same place. But there comes a moment when the borrowed path can take us no further. We are left alone with an empty space, our own choices, and the responsibility of making the next mark. This piece is a reflection on that moment. It is about discovering that authenticity is never inherited; it is revealed through the courage to continue when certainty has disappeared. We are not lost because we cannot see the way. We are only lost when we stop making one. Looking back, I no longer see this work as the beginning of a painting. I see it as the beginning of a painter. What I believed was a search for the right image became a search for the one capable of creating it. The painting did not simply come to life on the canvas; in its making, it quietly began to shape the person holding the brush. Perhaps every painting carries two stories: the one we see, and the one it leaves behind in the artist. In the end, this work became more than the record of a landscape. It became the record of a life discovering that, as the painting was being made, the painting was also making its painter.