Artist's commentary
Standing beneath the Azure Sky
It was a long...long winter. Perhaps things would have been easier if he had just frozen to death. But without making mistakes, leaving regrets, or suffering defeat, he would not now know what it is he must do.
He's not doing this for anyone else. Even if he's ultimately powerless to help, or has no chance of winning, he won't let that stop him from trying. For thanks to those scarred hands, he now knows that this is a battle fought by all who were never gifted with natural talent.
Now, the dawn has broken. And so, the wolf sets out on the journey ahead, as different from who he once was as a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis.