About two years ago, I got a package of 5 canvases, and one of them had a small hole in it. I wondered if it could be patched. I painted it red, then I set it aside for a long time. About a year later, I got some gold and silver foil, and wanting to experiment, I used the old red canvas with a hole in it. I put on the foil then set it aside for another period of time.

One day last month, I came across it again. I decided that I should rip the hole open more and make some sort of abstract collage. I started blending orange, red and yellow. I painted an egg shape. Then I started just making intuitive marks around the shape. I ripped the hole a little more. I worked without a goal. I just played around until an idea developed.

I heard a story from a friend about his friend who was shot in the face a few years ago, but survived. Her life has been a series of surgeries and recoveries since then. It changed the way she looked; it changed the way she saw life.

And I thought about how long recovery takes, and how sometimes, we don’t recover, we transform. I also thought about Kintsugi the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold.

I stitched up the torn canvas with gold thread. Then let the painting tell me what to do.

It’s now finished. It’s In Recovery.

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