Painting the Hero-ine's Journey in 5 Steps - 4th Stage - ROAD BACK - It's not about making a painting it's about the experience of making a painting

In stage 4, the Hero-ine struggles back to the world from which the hero came, boon intact.   The path and the plant that were so clear in 3rd stage are now obscured in the 4th stage.  There is still light in the journey helping the hero-ine know her destination but there are more trials and tribulations to experience.

In Campbell's structure I am collapsing 2 stages: The Road Back and The Resurrection.

THE ROAD BACK.  About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home.  Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.

THE RESURRECTION.  At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home.  He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level.  By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.n his book, "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure,"

Christopher Vogler writes "that for a story to feel complete, the reader needs to experience an additional moment of death and rebirth, subtly different from the ordeal. This is the climax of the story, the last dangerous meeting with death. The hero must be cleansed from the journey before returning to the ordinary world. The trick for the writer is to show how the hero’s behavior has changed, to demonstrate that the hero has been through a resurrection.

During the resurrection, death and darkness are encountered one more time before being conquered for good. Danger is usually on the broadest scale of the entire story and the threat is to the entire world, not just the hero. The stakes are at their very highest. The hero, uses all lessons learned on the journey and is transformed into a new being with new insights."

In this stage of the painting I spattered black and red to obliterate the stage three painting. My husband loves this stage of the painting and asked me not to paint any more and tell my teachers that it was done.  But I will paint the last layer!  It's not really about making a painting it is about the experience of making the painting.