I awoke in the glade

"I awoke in the glade"

50 x 50 cm

Oil on canvas

2025

I awoke in the glade, amongst all life waiting patiently for me there.

The blades of grass and damp earth beneath me, the sun filtering in through my heavy eyelids.

I realized I was crying.

How long had I slept there? In the glade?

How many days, months, years, asleep though every rain and every fire. Asleep through the dark that seemed to last forever, until finally the starlings and daisies bobbing and soft rose petals heralded the day.

I have waited so long for the day.

I have waited so long for the light.

...

This painting is an ode to rebirth. One of the most stunning aspects of surviving cancer is feeling reborn. Each thing I do now, each challenge, every action, feels like the first time. I have been on this planet for more than a century, yet I suddenly find myself a tiny baby, looking on with wonder, newness, and often fear.

It is no wonder every person I meet exclaims that I look like a child!

This painting is totally beautiful. A poem.

As of this writing, "I awoke in the glade" is available in the Italy Studio.

Whimsical

"Whimsical"

80 x 80 cm

Oil and gold pigments on canvas

2025

There's a place I like to go. It is intimate. Secret. Enchanted. The light is different there. The air moves in a slow dance, the water flows freely, rushing with a sound like the wind.

Painting this place is one of my greatest joys as an artist. I have painted it many times, iterations of my own imaginary timeline, blooming or waning. I like to think of these landscapes scattered around the globe in the homes of my collectors, opening up portals of light, moving and changing with the seasons and the time of day, ever-changing worlds offering a place of peace and contemplation to those people lingering before them.

I believe creating this light is why I am here. It is why I paint.

"Whimsical" is that place. The flutter of the leaves and air moving through a lavender field.

It is a place to fall into. To breathe. To be.

At the time of this writing, "Whimsical" is available in my Italy studio.

The wind and my broken heart mending

"The wind and my broken heart mending"

100 x 70 cm

Oil on canvas

2025

My heart is broken. It's taken me a while to just accept it. To say it. My heart is broken.

Having cancer and going through treatment in 2024 broke me in some ways. It fell upon my naïve, airy head like a thunderclap. It floored me. Violated me. Robbed of my eternal conviction that the universe was basically a benevolent place. That the universe loved me. It made me realize that cruel things happen randomly. That suffering is not always enlightened. Sometimes it is just suffering.

And even though I find myself here now, very alive after walking with death so close to me, I now know that we all have death walking beside us. I thought I knew that before, but I didn't. Not really. I know it now. So death and I walk. We walk along the river, up the mountain, by the lake, on the beach, down my cobblestone street. We are companions now. We walk often in the wind and weather.

This painting is the wind. As it blows, heedless of me and you and every creature. It blows clean and strong and poetically, a thing of power. The wind blows straight through me, through my heart that feels broken. It blows through my heart and lingers there, mending the strings of my violin. Darning my dress. Brushing my newly born hair back from my forehead.

The universe may no longer love me as I once believed. But the wind does. The wind loves me. The wind is there for only me. Holding me up and carrying me on light.

The wind and my broken heart mending.

On the date of this writing, This painting is available in my Italy studio.