On Looking Up began with watching birds migrate overhead and feeling a momentary pull of movement with them. It was the import of distance and flight toward somewhere else, with the brief illusion of something new, different, dazzling.
 
 
The birds continue on across the sky while the branches remain where they are, reaching into the same air year after year. The painting holds both the awareness that movement is possible and the quiet peace of staying, of watching something pass through without needing to become untethered.
 
 
Gold leaf birds move across layered atmospheric color and sit directly on top of the painted surface. The painting was built through many underlying paint layers, allowing texture, shifts in color, and bits of earlier history to remain visible throughout the piece.