Between Then and Now

Acrylic, pencil, washi on wood.

40x40x1.50"

I started this painting alongside Pink Went Wandering, during a period when I was working outside and had just finished processing my very first batch of Japanese kozo. It felt inevitable to bring those fibres into the work—both the raw, unbeaten strands and the softer, beaten pulp—an invitation to explore a material that was still entirely new to me.

Because it was my first time processing kozo on my own, things didn’t go quite as planned. The fibres resisted, clumping together instead of dispersing evenly through the water. The result never fully sat right with me. I could feel the potential in the piece, but the early layers kept pulling my attention in a way that felt unresolved. So I let it rest. Through the winter, it stayed in the studio, unfinished but not forgotten.

Sometime in 2025, I looked at it again, and something had shifted. With distance came clarity. I finally understood where the painting wanted to go—not by correcting the past, but by responding to it. Between Then and Now became a bridge between experimentation and understanding, a quiet marker of growth, patience, and learning to trust that timing is part of the process.