06/16/2026
This one had a rough patch in the middle.
The sketch and the dark ground came together exactly as I wanted. Then I started collaging in the music score motif and nearly panicked. I was using methyl cellulose to adhere the paper, and it was too wet, smearing the dark background underneath it. There was a real moment where I wondered if I’d ruined the whole piece.
I switched to an acid-free glue stick and it went much better. But the smear marks are still there if you look closely, and I had to decide whether that bothered me.
It doesn’t. I love the juxtaposition of raw and clean in my work — the smudge against the precise line, the mess beside the considered mark. That contrast is one of the most exciting things to me about making art. The hard part is silencing my perfectionist instinct long enough to let it stay.
Once the heliconia leaves were in and I started painting Tále in his full color, I got excited about where this piece is headed. He’s a riot of red, orange, and gold against deep green, the most theatrical painting in the collection so far, and it’s finally starting to look like it.
Free illustrated page from inside the Dreaming Garden at the link in my bio.