Leaving the Edge reflects a moment of transition for me—when attention shifts away from a narrow, identity-based way of seeing and toward a more expansive and profound knowing. Forms move intentionally beyond the borders of the image, suggesting decisions that arise not from force or resistance, but from listening inwardly. Going “off the edge” became both a visual and perceptual gesture: a willingness to move beyond what is familiar, named, or contained as I enter my later years. There is so much more to see beyond the edge.
The figures that emerge in the upper portion of the painting are not meant to represent moral opposites or fixed archetypes. As I spent more time with the work, I came to see that while one form carries a red intensity that may be read as fear, hesitation, or attachment, the lighter figure is oriented upward and outward, toward a broader field of awareness. What matters here is not conflict, but discernment—the quiet recognition that a former way of being no longer holds, and that movement forward can occur with grace rather than struggle. The work intentionally resists binary interpretation, inviting viewers to sense a shift in awareness rather than a confrontation between forces.
Although these themes were not consciously planned in the studio, they surfaced naturally through the process. Continued reflection on non-dual perspectives—particularly the understanding that awareness is not confined to personal identity—has begun to move through the work intuitively. Painting becomes an act of noticing rather than deciding, allowing form, color, and gesture to reveal what is already present beneath thought.
