Against All Odds

This is the painting I chose to represent me in the 18th annual Santa Barbara Studio Artists Open Studios Tour preview exhibition. It's an older piece, but it represents a frequent theme in my work which is the persistence of life even in the most inhospitable circumstances. In other paintings I depict weeds growing out of the cracks in pavement or around the spaces in brick walkways. The berries that have dropped here are indication that life persists above as well.

Even though, 40 million years ago, a cataclysmic collision with an asteroid wiped out 99.9% of all life on earth, life survived and flourished once again. That gives me hope that even if we are unable to solve our climate crisis, eventually an even better iteration of life will come forth in the future. Nothing lasts forever.

 P.S. This painting works just as well horizontally as it does vertically and can be hung either way.