(2021), 101.6cm x 101.6cm / 40”x40” acrylic on canvas, charcoal, oil pastel, pencil, gloss medium. Tasmania oak frame.

This painting is a celebration of our primal instinct for alignment. When we peel back the layers of self-doubt and expectation, we can access a beautiful vulnerability: cultivating joy by inhabiting our most authentic selves. With this piece, I was able to put aside all of life’s noisy distractions and simply focus on the joy of painting what my soul needed to express, which created a blissful sense of balance and purpose. I delight in the feeling of charcoal on canvas, so I began this painting with fluid shapes in charcoal. I layered blends of raw umber and granite to heighten the organic and tactile expression and contrasted with the smoky pink to showcase how truly aligned I feel with the universe when I am able to resign myself to the creative process.