Constellating
12 x 16 inches (or thereabouts)
2007
Private collection

I’ve been going through my files–flat files, digital files–inventorying images and objects, and doing some spring cleaning.

In the process, I’ve found several items that aren’t on the website, and I’m slowly adding them. Recently expanded the Drawings and Etchings page, and the last couple of posts have been older paintings.

This drawing, Constellating, is one of those missing pieces. It was traded to another artist not long after completion, but I documented it before waving goodbye. Coming across the digital file, I noticed that I had given a 2016 painting the same title.

The images are wildly different but share elements. The older image seems more literal (if stars aligning inside a plant can be taking literally); the newer painting seems more… joyful, I guess. This is something I value about working as an artist: spiraling around an idea, sometimes forgetting it completely, and then bumping back into it with a new approach. A word or phrase is often the inspiration for an image, and in this case “constellating” still has something to say to me.