Sixth Elegy, details

This is the sixth painting in the series of work- Distant Elegies - I exhibited in 2007 and 2008. The poem [ Sixth Elegy, from The Duino Elegies ] by Rainer Maria Rilke explores the idea of the hero.

...the hero is strangely close
to those who died young.
Permanence
doesn't interest him.
His dawn is his lifetime....


It seemed appropriate to chose an image of a footballer to explore this sentiment. But my footballer also wears the mask of a horse, the other hero in my family. I grew up with the sound of the radio announcing the races each week.
Apologies for the out of focus image of the football, but I wanted to show the detail.
The main photos of each work were taken by Terence Bogue. The details were taken by me (and are slightly greyish).