FLORA is one of those images that floated up to my consciousness like a Polaroid photograph developing into clarity. At the time I started the painting I was merely intent on midwifing the image into reality, trusting that it's meaning would become apparent to me in the execution of the work. I took a trip to Joshua Tree National Park earlier this year and I was quite taken by the brilliance and clarity of the light and colors of the California desert. It affected me deeply both spiritually and esthetically and the painting is a reflection of this. Secondly, around the time the image came to me I had been meditating on naturally occurring structures like coral atolls, termite mounds, and other large scale natural formations. I got to thinking that cities and other works of man are simply our equivalent expressions of our presence here on Earth, and in that context can be seen as being just another expression of nature. During the trip, I realized (on a deep level I had not been aware of before) that we are of nature, a part of nature, not apart from it....and so are our works. Therefore in my painting, the man-made structure is seen as just as natural and part of the landscape as the “other” desert flora.