Sublime Affliction

"Whatever is in any sort terrible or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling." - Edmund Burke, The Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful From my background in Philosophy and Aesthetics, I became interested in the philosophy of the Sublime. Sublimity comes from somewhere beyond, or deeper than immediate sensation - it cannot be literally seen. For example, we cannot see the liberating power of our free will or the accompanying terror of infinite possibility and responsibility for our choices. 'Sublime Affliction' then depicts our reactions to liberating but terrifying experiences in life: love, desire, freedom and art itself which, in a secular society, allows us to connect with something higher.