The Tin Man

Description

This is not a fairy tale.
It is the aftermath of believing one.

A yellow road cuts through darkness, winding upward through fear, memory, and distorted promise. Hands reach from its edges—red, urgent, grasping—marking every step with warning rather than guidance. What once suggested direction now feels like inevitability.

Above, the Tin Man watches—metal face fixed, eyes heavy with longing. He floats removed from the path, crowned yet incomplete, a figure built for endurance but still searching for a heart. Nearby, one hovers anyway: whole, distant, unreachable.

Below, a fragile woman remains—exposed, crawling, still moving beneath the weight of chains and expectation. One hand lifts, not in surrender, but in recognition. The journey is being witnessed, even if it offers no rescue.

Painted in 2010, this work fractures a familiar myth and rewrites it as truth: a story about manipulation, resilience, and the cost of following a road laid by others. The promise of arrival fades, replaced by the reality of survival.