30"x40" acrylic on canvas, 2023
 
When we tell our stories, having gained perspective, we often find that "in retrospect” we can see more clearly. Something was a precursor to something else, or there were flags, or even better, there were seeds, of the things that bloomed forth over time. For me, the experience of retrospect carries with it equal parts gratitude and sadness, and the palette of this piece in both cheerful and quiet blues merges with somber neutrals to allow for that ambiguity and ambivalence. I became enamored with the metaphor of a dandelion-type bloom, which in childhood we eagerly reach for, blowing our wishes earnestly into the ether…  My imagination also played with the idea of love-me/love-me-not petals, and the image of a firework which creates an orb of awe, just to break into beautiful pieces and fall away… There are suggestions of the moonstone, selenite, throughout the piece, infusing the canvas with properties for cleansing body, mind, and spirit, removing limiting beliefs and negativity, and aiming to elicit a feeling of peace.