Original artwork description:

When I start each new piece, I have a general idea of where I am going, or the concept. With this one, I had neither. I committed to painting a double portrait of 2 lovely sisters for the Beyond the Diagnosis exhibit for the Rare Disease Foundation. The concept was to have the girls in the center of a buzzing garden, full of butterflies, flowers, bees, just teaming with life. I did the garden part and before I could paint the girls, it dawned on me that I was just not happy with the painting...something was off. So I went and created a brand new work for the girls. So that left this 48" x 48" panel to be dealt with.

I decided I would abstract the scene with my gossamer web technique and it really started taking shape. The insects shown through and it had a really cool feel. Then I took the painting to the driveway...grabbed some large branches and used them to mask my spray paint (with my kids help). Then when I got it back into the studio, I decided to actually paint the branches and use the gossamer technique for the wood bark texture. I love what was happening. I got to a point where I had to stop and figure out what the heck to I do next?

It wasn't hitting me right away, but my eye kept gravitating to a purple section in the upper-right corner. There was a form in it and when I squinted my eyes, I saw it. The outstretched arms of a boy...gliding down from the top of either the trees, the sky, a portal...who knows. So I promptly got my son outside on our swing set swinging upside-down for me to take reference pictures. He had a blue shirt on, but a red shirt seems to be the tradition with paintings he is in.

When painting the red shirt, I decided to try and have it bleed out into the branches and become more like a melding of the organics, but it just looked like he was actually bleeding out. I contemplated changing the story for a second, but it was too grizzly and not what I was trying to achieve. So I used my design grates to spray a pattern over it...which was the perfect way to finish off the painting.

This is a glorious new beginning within the childhood memory series...it seems the possibilities are endless...and that makes me happy.

Materials used:

acrylic, spray paint

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