a man's reach should exceed his grasp

Cut-paper collage created for Kollage Kit theme: "Snakes and/or Ladders." And this definitely fits for Illustration Friday's theme of "Paper."

Title from Robert Browning's "Andrea del Sarto," in which the full line is "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?"

String of macaw feathers made as an offering to the gods by the Huichol Indians of northwestern Mexico. Extension ladder from Uline industrial supply catalog. Cloud from The Book of Clouds by John Day. Lithograph of hand by N. H. Jacob, from an anatomy & surgery book by the 19th century French surgeon J. B. M. Bourgery.