Every great journey begins with a small paper boat

As children, we all folded paper boats. Then we set them on the water and watched them sail away. We never stopped to think that they would get soaked. That was exactly what was good about it.

What the paper boat knows

For me, the paper boat is a symbol of courage. It stands for the decision to set our dreams afloat again and again, even when we know that a storm sometimes awaits us.

Because freedom isn't born where there are no waves, but in the moment we set out.

There is something mercilessly honest about this. A paper boat doesn't pretend it will last forever. It promises no safety. All it says is: I'm still afloat. And for as long as it floats, it is real.

Freedom isn't born where there are no waves, but in the moment we set out.

The picture in question

The print shows a regatta – sails on a lake in quiet, bright morning light – and huge paper boats drifting across the image. The two layers don't explain each other. The real boat and the one folded from paper are simply there at the same time: the prepared departure and the unprepared one.

A picture means something different to everyone. To me, it means this.

Why limited

The numbered and signed prints are printed on art paper in a 296 × 396 mm format, with a cardboard backing, in a protective cellophane sleeve, wrapped and tied in tissue paper, in their own shipping box. One hundred copies are being made, and there will be no more.

This is not a marketing ploy. A limited edition obliges its maker to commit: this is it. No reprints, no “if it sells well, we'll make more”. Whoever buys one knows which copy they are holding – and that knowledge changes the way they look at it on the wall.

The first forty have already been sold.

If someone needs it right now

There are times when you just can't set out. Not because you have no plan, but because you can see all too clearly how much could go wrong. At times like that, what you need isn't advice but a picture on the wall that says the same thing every morning: I'm still afloat.

PapírhaJó is available on the FineArt page.