This painting has a great story! I started as abstract mark making in early 2025. I was playing around with Natural Earth Paint's new Natural Fluid Acryliks which are an archival plant-based acrylic paint. After layers and layers of mark making I felt like it suggested an abstracted procession of monks going through a sort of ethereal forest.  So I developed that concept. But I never really felt it was done done. I had the opportunity to frame it and offer it for sale many times that year, but I held off. 

Fast forward to early Feb of 2026 and I heard about the Buddhist monks on their Walk for Peace. According to Wikipedia: The walk began on October 26, 2025, and spanned approximately 2,300 miles (3,700 km). They arrived in D.C. on February 10, 2026 after 108 days.^[1][2] The monks are accompanied by a dog named Aloka, who has become a symbolic figure throughout the journey.^[3] 

The painting was waiting for the monks and their peace dog to make their pilgrimage and for me to paint them in. I do feel that the paintings take on a lifeforce their own. I do feel that they tell me what they need to become. I don't have to name the forces that are at play in art making, I just have to listen.