You Are So Beautiful (When You Speak), 2019

Acrylic, ink, and charcoal on canvas
30 cm diameter

Rocks and corals carry metaphors of home, of special places, of being grounded. Their textural surfaces offer intriguing aesthetics that I find meditative to draw and paint. I often use real pieces of corals or images of rocks for reference. This painting however emerged organically without a specific idea or a reference image. The title came unconsciously as it neared completion. There is an unresolvable dissonance between the title and the object it depicts – a rock that cannot speak. Sometimes we place impossible conditions upon ourselves or others in pursuit of meaningful connections.