"Lucid's Garden" 30 x 24 Acrylic on Canvas

"Lucid" meaning luminous, and light, this is a scene of dreams of childlike wonder. It is a depiction of the illuminating and explosive quality of when the imagination is woven as one with external reality.

Starting with abstract expressionism, I took a lot of time to watch this piece, and see deeply into the paint in the beginning stages to see what objects wanted to come out. I call this an "excavation" of the imagination as I try not to think what to paint, but only what is revealed to me in the paint that I then bring to fruition. It is a way for me to get to know my own mind.

Slowly, the scene revealed itself as one surreal subject after another came through - a dream garden of surreal properties where nothing is exclusively what it appears to be at first glance. Governed by animal spirits doubling as land, fire, and water, a quaint home in candy apple red rests cozily by a seaside stream. The current whirls magically into a train barreling downstream where the river will morph into a bubbly yellow corral reef ruled by a strangely animated fish. Beyond, is the home's backyard - a luscious green stretch of wildflowers leading to an old worn fence which divides the mystical property from a golden yellow beach where, given the light, it's hard to tell if it is high noon, dusk, or if the sun ever sets on this unreal dreamscape of jubilant chaos.