seeing

when i was growing up, i always liked to paint big things -- oceans, landscapes, towering buildings -- imaginary scenes of faraway places that, to me, evoked a sense of mystery, grandeur and beauty.

it's taken many years for me realize that sometimes the most precious things in our lives are those mundane, oft-unnoticed objects, places, and people beside us -- the things we often take for granted.

this is a painting i've been working on concurrently with the "chair" piece i finished yesterday. again, only late into the painting process, after i'd put down the layers of color, did i realize that there's too much going on compositionally, detracting from the focus of the painting, which i actually didn't realize till later, was the bag filled with painting supplies. i'd originally put in the bag as a space-filler -- just an interesting shape/color to break the monotony of the stair case. only as i was painting the bag's folds and shadows today did i realize how rich in texture, shape, shadow etc that little image held in itself.