2024 has been a year of transformation, both personally and artistically. It's been a time of "magic," where my work, much like my inner journey, has evolved in profound and unexpected ways. I find myself in a heightened state of awareness, navigating the chaotic yet beautiful world around me with a renewed sense of clarity and creative purpose. This new work, *The Universe*, reflects that journey.

Pictured above, *The Universe* is the largest painting I’ve ever undertaken. It's a monumental piece, both in size and significance, beginning as an expansive roll of raw canvas that I unfurled on the floor. I started the process by applying gesso with an extra-long-handled brush, allowing me to move freely around the canvas without disrupting its surface—an intimate, tactile dance with the material that set the foundation for everything that followed.

Once the gesso dried, I dove into the first base layers, experimenting with various large brushes to discover the unique shapes they could create. Initially, my palette was soft—flesh tones blended with earthy hues, reminiscent of the warm, golden shades from my ongoing *Magic* series. I wasn’t entirely sure where this piece would take me, but I knew it was destined to be the focal point of my solo exhibition next March.

As I continued to work, organic, tree-like forms began to emerge. Long, sinuous shapes spread across the canvas, evoking the essence of roots or branches—connecting the earth below to the sky above. This piece began to anchor itself, not just as the centerpiece of my upcoming exhibition, but as a living, breathing entity, absorbing the energies of both creation and contemplation.

There’s a particular leap of faith involved in starting a piece of this magnitude. You have to trust in the process and feel your way through it, allowing the painting to guide you. At one point, I moved *The Universe* to my outdoor studio in Pennsylvania, hanging it high on my patio where I could work on it from different angles, bathed in natural light. Over the course of several days, the piece transformed before my eyes—what had been rough and raw began to soften, taking on a quiet, subdued beauty. I almost stopped there.

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Looking at *The Universe* now, it feels like a swirling collection of organic particles—dancing, merging, and colliding in a field of energy. It’s a combustion of magic, a visual symphony of life itself. The piece is still very much in progress, crafted primarily with oil pastels and oil paints, each stroke layering detail upon detail across the immense canvas. It’s a slow process, one that resists being rushed, demanding patience and presence.

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Looking at *The Universe* now, it feels like a swirling collection of organic particles—dancing, merging, and colliding in a field of energy. It’s a combustion of magic, a visual symphony of life itself. The piece is still very much in progress, crafted primarily with oil pastels and oil paints, each stroke layering detail upon detail across the immense canvas. It’s a slow process, one that resists being rushed, demanding patience and presence.

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