In Your Hand, acrylic on canvas board. 2012

This is the result of the what I made at my friend’s trunk show! It was an idea that came to my mind and I made it especially for the event. The painting was a raffle prize to a lucky attendee, and he was so happy to get it! It was a great feeling to see someone so excited to receive one of my paintings – a piece of me!

I’m still in a place where I’m inspired by flowers and attaching symbolism to that motif. Essentially the inspiration for this painting was inner beauty and self-awareness. I didn’t exactly realize it though when I had the idea though. The painting basically formed from the idea of merging blood veins with a flower stem, I liked the way that looked in my head. When I thought about that idea a little further it went to the concept of input/output, blood feeding a flower and the flower could have different outcomes. Maybe lifeless, just budding, closed/asleep, or open and beautiful. Then from there I had to consider where I wanted to take that. What was my input? What would my flower look like? I chose a lotus flower this time, which is becoming one of my new favorite flowers. Then chose a dark night sky with light emanating from the hand and flower. I like the idea of a bright, open flower in the dark. Under the stars, which I was trying to use to communicate the concept of something beyond ourselves and our worlds – for some that could mean God, or just the universe…something vast and ethereal. Then the flower in the hand in the foreground would be something like, staking a claim within all of that. That’s what it ended up meaning to me anyway, maybe it affects you differently. Maybe it’s just a pretty picture in the end?

Would love to hear your thoughts!