One's position in the world, especially when growing up, can be hard to understand. 
 
Even though this saying is easy to relate to, it is still deep in meaning. 
You see, this saying has three distinct parts. Firstly, one's position, where one is placed or places oneself. Secondly, growing up, the action and the active role one plays in the passing of time. and lastly, understanding, making something of the world we live in and contemplating it to the nth degree. 
 
This painting is my way of interpreting this saying. especially the focus on one's position in the world. 
 
Now this painting was painted when i was in my teens. One day, on a sunny afternoon, I walked home from school. [It must have been after detention because school finished way before sunset, and this image was taken at sunset.] I walked into my parents' home and saw this exact image before I even walked through the front door. I stood for a while, admiring what I was seeing. Standing at the front door, there is a window to your left, and through that window, the sun was setting, and the light was shining through. Every surface in the room was illuminated beautifully. I had to capture that moment, so i took a photo and later painted it. 
 
You can call this painting a self-portrait, as it is me, Yedidya Falkson, painting my position in this world and the role i play while painting it, void of my physical body. 
 
One can read so much into a chair. The place one sits, taking up space, and then, when absent, their presence still lingers. This is the essence of this painting. 
 
The chair in this image is the seat i sat in for my early life every Shabbas, to the left of my father and in front of the South African Mona Lisa. This was my seat. This was my privilege. 
 
The environment that i was nurtured in was the wealthiest anyone can ever ask for. To sit in a seat beside a man like my father and sit in a seat in front of a painting like the South African Mona Lisa. It's not easy to come by. So when on that one sunny afternoon i saw my position and privilege. I had to take action to state thanks and pay gratitude.
 
As the viewer, you are the one source of light filling the room. You illuminate my experience and my existence.
 
You are the warmth that reflects on my surfaces, keeping my physicality thermoregulated. 
 
[It may sound funny, but contemplate it]