Taking Flight, like many of my still life paintings, is allegorical. To me, that means that as I painted this piece, each element represented a part of a story. The elegant jar with its beautiful jewel is a life well lived, full of challenges and opportunities. The Life is balanced on a shelf that is mostly stable, but could theoretically be pulled out from under at any time. The ornate cast in the background is an inspiration, a ghost of what is possible, the things you want to achieve.

The butterflies taking flight are not real butterflies. They are a made up species because they don't exist yet. They are thoughts of things that may or may not come to pass. They are what keeps me creating. As an artist, I have so many ideas for paintings that never come to fruition. But the joy in creating, for me, is thinking those thoughts, letting those butterflies take flight, and seeing which ones come back to me.