Fear of the Unknown
It is the subjects’ forms, as well as their interactions with these ambiguous backgrounds, which create the meaning behind Canadian artist Costa Dvorezky’s paintings. This piece, titled Canyon Dive II, features an unidentified man falling headfirst through a wide, surreal stretch of pale yellow fading into a soft sky blue. The low-saturated, mellow colors would typically evoke feelings of tranquility and peace, but the strange flatness of the background and the unsettling contortion of the man’s body evoke a sense of uneasiness. Although the title suggests a deliberate dive rather than an accidental fall, the muscles in his back are sharply flexed, energy coursing all the way through to his tensed hands and curled toes making us wonder if he is elated by the freedom of the plunge or terrified by the unknown. Through this single, powerful image, we confront one of humanity’s most fundamental anxieties: the fear of the unknown.
What makes this image particularly unsettling is the absence of a visible destination. The background—a study in sickly yellows and murky greens—offers no clues about what awaits the falling figure. There is no visible water to break the dive, no net to catch the fall, no ground to mark the endpoint of this journey. The textured abstraction of the background creates a void that could be anything or nothing—a perfect visual embodiment of the unknown itself. The body itself tells a story of fear confronted. Though beautifully formed and powerful, the figure exists in a position of complete exposure. There is nowhere to hide, no protective posture possible. Arms extend outward in what might be interpreted as either a desperate attempt to find balance or a final surrender to the inevitable plunge. The head, angled downward, faces directly into whatever awaits—whether by choice or necessity.
The profound solitude of the figure intensifies the existential terror depicted. There are no companions in this journey, no support structures visible, no community to share the burden of confronting the unknown. This isolation speaks to another dimension of our fear—the knowledge that certain thresholds must be crossed alone, that in our most vulnerable moments of transition and transformation, we are fundamentally on our own.
How does this painting make you feel?
Artwork: Costa Dvorezky
I like how they’re slightly cartoonish and embellished, like they’re inhuman in their freedom.