From Healing to Canvas: The Story Behind This Painting

Some paintings begin with a clear idea. With this one, I knew from the start that I wanted to paint my middle child, the baseball player—but I had no plan for the background. It started as a swirl of color and feeling, and only later did I realize it was telling the story of my own inner world.

“Baseball Player” – mixed media, sports/kids collection

With the baseball player, I wasn't sure if the mood I was conveying was reflective of my middle child's character or my own feelings. It turns out it was my own thoughts and feelings that I was expressing. Specifically, I was illustrating how my current mood was influencing my paintbrush. With the current sports/kids collection, I start painting with the background, where I don’t have a definitive plan. I let my mood set the colors and brush strokes. With the baseball player, I felt chaos ensue with a plethora of colors and brush strokes. I pictured colorful baseballs floating across the paper; it was too much. Then came my middle child, the baseball player. He was my calm amid the chaos, my anchor. Suddenly, the painting became a true representation of my life. The chaos and whirlwind of my thoughts are balanced by the presence of my son, as well as my other children. They are my grounding force, my anchor in the chaos of my thoughts.