The Moored Silence – Back to Joy

Stories Behind My Art

This artwork marked a quiet yet profound return — the first piece I created after a 25-year pause from painting. It was not made with expectation, ambition, or any intention to prove myself. Instead, it was a moment of stillness, a small yet meaningful step back into the world of art, simply to feel again.

For many years, the education system equated value with grades, tests, and measurable achievement. At fourteen, I was told art had no “use,” that it was a distraction from what truly mattered. So, I was forced to put down my brush. Life continued forward, but a part of me stayed frozen — moored, waiting.

At thirty-nine, I picked it up again. The moment the pigment touched the paper, something inside me softened. The colors spreading across the page felt like breath returning to a long-silent room. It was not dramatic, but it was real — a quiet rekindling of joy.

This painting became a symbolic record of that moment — the freedom to choose what I truly wanted to do, to sit with stillness, and to meet myself where I had left off.

Artwork Description

Basic Information

• Title: The Moored Silence – Back to Joy
• Year: 2018/07/09
• Size: 21 × 29 cm
• Medium: Watercolor on Paper
• Technique: Wet-on-wet blending with layered washes to express stillness and tonal depth

Visual Elements and Imagery

• Central Scene: A small boat resting on calm water beneath a soft, diffused sky
• Color Palette: Muted blue-green tones conveying quiet suspension and emotional distance
• Light Reflections: Gentle highlights across the water surface, evoking peace, solitude, and inner stillness

Symbolism and Psychological Layers

• Moored Boat: A symbolic pause — a moment of anchoring after long movement, representing rest, reflection, and self-observation
• Emotional Context: The work documents the inner state of returning to creativity: meeting silence, acknowledging distance, and embracing the self again
• Psychological Shift: From suppression (art as “useless”) → to reconnection (art as joy and truth of being)