Rainbows are an incredible, natural phenomenon. An uncredited quote that I've hung onto, states:

"The existence of a rainbow depends on the conical photoreceptors in your eyes; to animals without cones, the rainbow does not exist. So you don't just look at a rainbow, you create it."

In other words, when a rainbow appears, you are not a passive observer, but rather an active creator of a phenomenon that is unique to your point of view.

And from my point of view, we don't just see rainbows in the sky, we also feel them through our relationships with each other. Like a visual rainbow, these felt rainbows can be incredibly beautiful and fleeting. Although whether you feel anything at all or to what degree, depends on your unique receptors. It is these types of rainbows that I explore and try to capture in my work.

I do this by smearing individual blobs of acrylic paint across a surface in a swooping, gestural stroke. Through this action, I create what I like to call a "swoosh of color." My process begins by first selecting a combination of colors that resonate with each other and convey a mood. It sounds straightforward, but this part often consumes more time for me than creating an actual painting. This is because I go to the trouble of fine tuning each hue by creating custom mixes of paint, as opposed to only using colors that come straight out of the tube. When I come up with a hue I like, I note the formula and mix enough to keep in a bottle so I can revisit that color in future artworks.

The circular shape of a rainbow is influenced by the spherical drops of water that sunlight passes through. My swooshes of color often take an organic and flowing shape because that is how a meaningful relationship can feel. Moving through space and time - fast, then slow, up then down. I am giving a visual form to the energy that can exist between two people. But more than that, with each painting, I am creating my own visual language by chasing the rainbows that others have inspired me to feel.

"Ignited," acrylic on canvas, 2022.