A Mind at Work

Acrylic on canvas.

36x36x875"

A Mind at Work

I painted this piece to capture what it feels like when the outside world becomes quiet but the mind refuses to follow.
Her eyes are closed. She appears calm, almost meditative, but behind that stillness is an explosion of thoughts—ideas, questions, memories, fragments, symbols, problems, possibilities. Some connect. Some go nowhere. Some probably shouldn't be there at all. That is how my mind works.

The blue surrounding her head became the space where all of that activity could live. I filled it with marks, spirals, equations, dots, lines, and symbols without requiring them to make literal sense. They represent the constant movement of a creative mind—the strange journey from one thought to another and another until, somehow, an idea emerges.

As an artist, dancer, choreographer, teacher, writer, and designer, I have spent most of my life creating. I've learned that creativity isn't always peaceful or organized. Sometimes it's messy. Sometimes it's obsessive. Sometimes your brain simply won't shut up.

The closed eyes are important to me. While everything around her is moving, she is still. There is an entire universe happening inside her that no one else can see.

That's really what this painting is about.

The body may be resting, but the mind is still at work.