The First One

It was June of 2022, I was working a stressful job, I was watching the world catch fire, and I was struggling with a chronic illness that was a mystery at the time. Painting escaped me from those horrors; it had become an addictive positive-feedback loop. I hadn't really painted in oil since college in the 2000s and rediscovering that medium was exactly the kind of challenge that was exciting and spurred on the whole project.