The first in the color series, Abstracted Black-eyed Susans, explores the warmth, energy, and optimism of yellow.
While much of my work leans toward magenta, this was a fun challenge for me to work with Indian Yellow and Pyrrole Orange. I was thinking about how late summer seems to show off these flowers at their best, and I found myself longing to spend more time in the garden instead of always rushing from one thing to the next. Maybe there is a longing here for flowers that could last more than a season. Sometimes I don’t know exactly what a piece means to me until much later.
This series, created for ArtPrize 2026, explores the way color can evoke feeling before we have words for it. Each painting was created as an invitation to pause, look closely, and experience the work in your own way. To notice what you feel, what draws you in, and what resonates.
I intentionally painted the room a deep blue as a backdrop for the three works, creating an environment that both harmonizes with and elevates the paintings. I have grown tired of institutionalized white spaces that don’t allow artwork to breathe or connect with the environment around it. I wanted these paintings to have a space that felt like part of the work itself.
In this way, if you had a chance to see it at ArtPrize next to Periwinkle Fog, I asked viewers a simple question:
The question isn’t, What does this color mean?
It’s What does this color awaken in you?
Because, as the saying goes, we do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.
The first in the color series, Abstracted Black-eyed Susans, explores the warmth, energy, and optimism of yellow.
While much of my work leans toward magenta, this was a fun challenge for me to work with Indian Yellow and Pyrrole Orange. I was thinking about how late summer seems to show off these flowers at their best, and I found myself longing to spend more time in the garden instead of always rushing from one thing to the next. Maybe there is a longing here for flowers that could last more than a season. Sometimes I don’t know exactly what a piece means to me until much later.
This series, created for ArtPrize 2026, explores the way color can evoke feeling before we have words for it. Each painting was created as an invitation to pause, look closely, and experience the work in your own way. To notice what you feel, what draws you in, and what resonates.
I intentionally painted the room a deep blue as a backdrop for the three works, creating an environment that both harmonizes with and elevates the paintings. I have grown tired of institutionalized white spaces that don’t allow artwork to breathe or connect with the environment around it. I wanted these paintings to have a space that felt like part of the work itself.
In this way, if you had a chance to see it at ArtPrize next to Periwinkle Fog, I asked viewers a simple question:
The question isn’t, What does this color mean?
It’s What does this color awaken in you?
Because, as the saying goes, we do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.
