A painting for friends....

This was the last painting I completed before leaving California and I delivered it my dear friends G & C just days before our move. They had commissioned the piece months before and only asked that it be a bit larger than normal and reference their love of the ocean and G's work as a Marine Biologist in some way. I painted the background right away but put off committing to an image for a long time until in one night it all came together and made sense. As I worked into the wee hours to finish it up I just kept layering imagery and adding color and text until the piece felt like it was singing. The next day when I was sharing my work with Sage (age 6) he commented that the rainbow turtle in the upper corner was his favorite part. I hadn't even realized I had mirrored the turtle's shell! I had added love, home, work and nature to the piece and titled it "how we put it all together". But what I realized after Sage's observation was that I guess we really don't know how we put it all together we just do and sometimes it's messy, sometimes it's confusing and sometimes it's really good. Here's hoping something really good finds you today : )