I AM

About the process of "I AM"

A few years ago, a neighbor of mine had to replace sheet rock.  When the wall was revealed behind the sheet rock, it had all the textures of the last 100 years.  Someone had spray painted23.1 "I AM".  For some reason it felt very powerful, and I knew I'd like to do something with that in a painting at some point.

The painting went through several iterations with the background over the last couple of years.  The first attempt never left my studio.  The second attempt, incorporating birds, which I had done in previous paintings, still fell short.  After re-incorporating the words from the old wall, I finally was able to get the painting to a point where I was happy with it.