When I paint I begin with no direction. No clear idea of what I want the work to become. I follow the feeling of the moment, and whatever sensations arise while I paint. So what you see is a tangle of different thoughts and emotions layered onto each other from a specific moment in time.

This particular painting was started while I went back to the US to take care of my sick mother. I finished this painting in bed next to her. She always knew when a painting of mine was done, and this is the last one that I had her input on. 

As I was finishing it the word 'Temperance' jumped out at me, so I placed it in the empty space. I think for that moment it was a bid for me to keep grounded while everything around me was shifting and crumbling. I couldn't afford to lose myself to the already mounting feelings of grief and anger that came with watching my mother dying slowly. I had to keep a semblance of calm and capability so that my mother had the help and support that she needed. 

As I look at this painting, and many of my other pieces, I do not feel like an observer, instead I feel that I am the one being seen.