Trogonoptera Brookiana Painting

My current work investigates themes of death and rebirth, strength and vulnerability, impermanence and interconnectedness. My creative process is inspired by nature, chaos, relationship, consciousness, Zen meditation, Buddhist study and my spiritual practice as a yoga and meditation teacher. I began exploring butterflies in oil paint as a visual muse with the idea of creating abstracts inspired by the colors and shapes of their wings. Instead, I instantly became fascinated with their intricate anatomy and the impossibility of their existence. I also have a passion for ecology and the natural world. With the important role of butterflies as pollinators at the center of our food chain, I researched organizations that protect them in order that my work creates another outlet to bring awareness to their vulnerable habitats. Oil painting has been a passion for a long time while Chinese calligraphy and Japanese ensō are new loves. Each discipline feeds and supports the other. One process is precise and delicate, the other perplexingly spontaneous. Together, the energy of each expression intertwines teaching me how to find what in Zen is called the “still point”. A few years back I participated in a weekend Zen retreat at the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Trempor, NY and repeated the same retreat a second time in August 2019. The retreat, on the basics of Chinese calligraphy, was led by calligraphy master and Buddhist scholar Kazuaki Tanahashi. What has kept my attention is the grounding and centering nature of the practice. It provides a way to bring my Zen practice fully into being through a creative outlet. Swishing around the page with the whole of my being has brought an ease to my painting and teaches an acceptance of every moment as it is. Moving from oil paint to ink and watercolor has been at the heart of my creative process over the last two years.