My multi-layered and elaborate compositions create imagined environments using abstracted botanical forms. The improvisational quality of my painting stems from responses to organic compounds found in nature. These forms are derived from overgrown, uncultivated areas of the forest floor. Gestural shapes and lush color promote analysis over time in these richly dense compositions. These sacred spaces are manifestations of my journey to the afterlife. Depression and thoughts of suicide are a constant psychological battle. By creating these environments, I have allowed myself to explore spaces of escape; mental and physical. My work persuades myself and my viewers to self-reflect in a time of isolation. We must find out way through the dark foreground to get to the light, much like daily life. I let the media lead, and then allow response. As I paint, I make conscious and sub-conscious decisions on how to proceed with my layers; almost like terraforming. Painting is a process of letting go and escaping. These spaces become sacred because of their intimacy. Each mark and layer of color is a reaction to the world around me. Adding, subtracting, covering, revealing… the process is one of discovery. These imagined worlds speak to the journey of their own making and to the power and mystery of nature.