'Reminder: You Can Trust Your Intuition' 30"x30" Original Abstract Painting on Canvas

This painting started way back in June 2020, as a way to channel the grief and, well, June 2020-in-Minneapolis-ness of it all. There was no plan for this painting (there never is, but I felt the chaos of this one acutely) and the result was hard for me to look at, because it brought me right back to sitting—very distantly—with new friends while masked and fearing for their lives, unable to offer any kind of hope. But I stuck with it because it also brings me back to so many acts of goodness. Because of that tension, this painting went months stashed away, pulled out for some new layers and tears, and resisted any sort of resolution for so long. It was a fight every time I propped it on the easel. But I continued to trust my intuition, and eventually covered up much of the chaos of those initial layers. It’s not gone—I still feel it, in the way that I am still am aware of the institutional suppression of so many risking so much for change. But I trusted my intuition, and let go of what