Usually, when asked about the Seeker and the Grail, I flippantly say, “It's about looking for your higher self between the legs of someone else.” As good for a chuckle as that sounds, it's also an invitation for introspection.

There are those, like the Seeker in this painting, who believe that finding their soulmate will resolve their feelings of emptiness. That somewhere there is the golden chalice, or phallus, that will magically and eternally heal their emotional wounds. So, while they wait for this mythical being to enter their life, they distract themselves with fads and addictions. The Grail here, easily represents the mythical soulmate, yet it is more deeply, an object upon which a wounded Seeker might fixate; social media, fashion, videos, drugs, sex, food. That is, anything that prevents a Seeker from focusing on understanding and resolving its pain. Yet, the Grail's wings remind us of the ephemeral quality of such fixations.

Once, a young man stood in front of this painting for an unusually long time. His companions kept coming in and out of the gallery to get him, but he just stayed. Curious, I asked him what about the painting kept him there. “I think I do this,” he said. “Well, it must be something you enjoy if you continue to do it,” I replied. “No,” he wept, “it makes me feel empty.” That moment, when his Grail took flight, was nothing to laugh about, but I found joy in knowing that healing might have begun for one more Seeker.