Meanwhile

Acrylic on canvas, 2026
16 × 20 in.

This painting began with an image that made me laugh.*

Two boys wearing elaborate “inventor” helmets sit side by side as if they are about to test something extremely important.

The seriousness on their faces is what got me. Children can look completely convinced that whatever they are about to do is either brilliant or slightly dangerous.

While I worked on this one I was still learning how the geometry wanted to behave in paint. The planes, the edges, the way color moves across a face. All of that was still being figured out as the painting developed.

I kept coming back to the small machine on the table between them. It looks like the sort of device that might accidentally release something into the room.

That’s why the faint glow sits at the bottom of the painting.

Just in case they let something out they shouldn’t have.

The glow is the suggestion of hope.