Christopher Martin’s You Can Learn to Fly… (2025, Mixed Media Sculpture) exemplifies his ability to condense philosophical reflection into a single striking phrase, transforming language into a sculptural object charged with immediacy and choice.

The work features a white sheet pierced by a black arrow, carrying the phrase: “YOU CAN LEARN TO FLY OR TAKE THE LADDER.” In its brevity, the statement frames two approaches to progress and transformation: one expansive, daring, and imaginative; the other steady, methodical, and grounded. Both suggest movement upward, but through radically different modes of being.

The arrow’s intrusion emphasizes decisiveness—life demands action, whether through risk or patience. It becomes a visual metaphor for choice itself: sharp, unavoidable, and present. The bold black lettering, stripped of ornament, enforces clarity, turning the phrase into something less like a suggestion and more like a challenge.

Martin’s minimal palette of black and white underscores universality. The absence of distraction directs focus onto the duality within the text: the tension between flight and climb, between vision and discipline.

In You Can Learn to Fly…, Martin distills the human experience of aspiration into a sculptural mantra. It is both poetic and pragmatic, reminding viewers that freedom lies not in avoiding the climb, but in choosing the path—whether to leap into flight or to ascend step by step.

14 x 9.5 x 17in
Ink on Paper + Wood Arrow