A Portrait - First Painting Completed in 2012

My first completed painting this year is a dark portrait with a nightmarish atmosphere. I have been working on this canvas on and off for years, and declared it completed several times, yet every time, soon after, I felt dissatisfaction about it and scolded myself for giving myself an easy pass. 

Once more, motivated to correct my "wrong", I took up the challenge to made this painting work.  I kept the overall theme of the desire to ascend and motif of ladder(s) and flaming tree.  I wanted to present a frustrated desire which was deeply spiritual.

The new element I introduced to this latest reincarnation is a dominant portrait, which was a relic of an icon painting, or the memory of mine of such work, pious, suffering yet otherworldly, and a bit self-pitying and oblivious to surroundings, perhaps a tad narcissistic. 

Lastly, several boldly drawn lines dissected the face of this sufferer and I'll leave that to my viewers to interpret them freely.