Chapter 06
Higher Ground
Not every journey leads farther.
Some lead higher.
There came a moment when the map stopped mattering.
I wasn't looking for another destination anymore. I was learning how to build one.
Higher Gound is a collection of places, projects and quiet rituals that slowly changed the way I see the world.
Not by taking me farther.
By taking me higher.
Not every memory becomes a photograph. Some become a scent. Some return every summer. Some simply keep grazing, long after you've gone.
01 — 04Nothing extraordinary happened up there. The weather changed. The light moved. I kept walking.
Looking back, I think that's exactly why I remember it.
The southern slope of Aibga Ridge, Western Caucasus.
Painted from memory after a series of hikes through the alpine meadows above Sochi.
The process behind Southern Slope — mostly exploring the trail, following the light.
05 — 07"I thought I was travelling through the world. Looking back, the world was travelling through me."
— From the studio journal
Between cities, between versions of myself — passing through became its own kind of staying.
08 — 11
Some landscapes rise through mountains. Others rise through stone.
Painted after travvelling through the Australian outback.
The landscape felt almost untouched by time. Massive granite boulders, burnt earth and an immense blue sky made distance feel physical.
Every painting begins long before the first brushstroke.
15 — 18
The first green after the outback never looks ordinary again
The ridge at dusk — paint, glass, sketch, silence. Everything I needed was already there.
19 — 22Gallery — Work in Progress
Some landscapes become paintings. Others become symbols.
23
24 · Komodo
Places leave twice. Once when you fly home.
Once when the become paintings.
Between the last sketch and the final frame — something always remains unfinished.
25 — 26Higher Ground is not a place.
It is a state of mind.
