No, you did not enter the Twilight Zone! I painted this playful little piece a few months ago when I discovered paint markers, and I wanted to explore pattern. It was fun, but I was not sure how it fit in with my body of work, so I tucked it away somewhere in my studio.

There was a point when I was embarrassed by my “experiments”, and after photographing them, I would gesso over the image and reuse the canvas. Now when I look back, I realize that these little paintings are stepping stones, and seen individually as little islands they may not make a lot of sense, but from a distance (or rather, in time) we can see how they link up to create a path.

My work, in general has been evolving in the last 2 years, and I have been laying down more and more stepping stones. Finally, I am starting to connect them, and I am really excited about the direction I am moving in. There is still a lot of work to do, but I have a vision now of where I want to go.

Eventually I will do a post to show the progression of this idea, but for now let me just say that this “Surreal Garden” full of alien looking plants was the step before the peacock paintings.

Stay tuned!