I have been working on this 42×42 inch painting for over a month now.
The stage it is shown in below is pretty far along, but not there yet.
It feels at the moment to be the first piece where I have incorporated many of the different styles I have been exploring these last 10 years;
the life energy paintings, the botanicals and the mandalas.
I am enjoying creating this piece. I had a vision for it at the beginning, but it is really taking shape as I paint it.
I have a better understanding now of what needs to be laid down first, and what will go on top.

Today while I was painting the idea of an allegory came to mind.
here is the definition:

al·le·go·ry

I am not sure the meaning is necessarily hidden, but after awhile observing the piece I hope that a meaning will reveal itself,
be it moral, political or spiritual.

I went to visit my sister and her wife in California for Thanksgiving and reacquainted myself with this painting I did in 2002.
I love how they have  buddha sitting right below it. It is at the end of a long hallway and the first and last thing you see when
you enter or leave the house.

I believe I just finished this painting, except for the final varnish I want to do on it. I am pleased with the way it turned out
I knew I wanted to use the small Hanuman figure in the center. When I first placed him there it wasn’t working out. He had
no connection to the rest of the painting. It wasn’t until I familiarized myself with the story of Hanuman, that I saw what I
needed to paint. Someone he cared about was hurting and it was said that there was a plant, Sanjivani, (a lithophytic plant)
on a certain mountain in the Dronagiri range in the Himalayas that could restore health. When he arrived at the mountain,
he couldn’t identify which was the correct plant so he decided to just bring the whole mountain. He is pictured leaping over the
ocean carrying the mountain. Hanuman is also sometimes depicted tearing open his chest to reveal his heart.

here is the painting in an earlier stage. it took a few months before I knew how to complete it.

I have just completed this 42×42 inch oil on panel painting. Part of a series I have titled the Wheel series, referring to one of buddhism’s eight auspicious
symbols, the wheel. This more specifically is a wheel of life, depicting the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, as well as the Texas native flowers shown,
the prickly rose and the indian blanket