I have to offer a heartfelt thanks to my muse. OK ... hold the eye-roll. Here's the story:
Focusing this morning on the swirling botanical pattern around Roxy. I've had a general sense of it, but have not completely figured out the execution ... what would be the pattern, and what would it mean? So I worked on sketches .... mapping the flow of elements around the canvass and through the gate. Nothing seemed right. In fact, I found myself drawing a pattern, and then trying to retrofit an overarching logic (which lots of artists do, especially with abstract stuff ... makes me crazy ... I have a great story about this for later).
So that's when my muse helped out, my oceanic visitor of perception. Sometimes the sense of my muse feels like sharing a heart-shaped pod, with our lower bodies coiled into the base. Not at all sure where the shape comes from .... maybe it's just the right brain making picture-sense of an otherwise inexplicable feeling. And that image is exactly what came to me ... the perfect flow pattern: coiled lines drifting through the opening, connected to heart arches embracing Roxy. Even cooler ... the pattern around the figure forms an eight, for infinity. Lovely.
OK .... here we go ...
