Spontaneous Resting States – A Collection

The Paintings

About the Collection

Since shelter-in-place began, I’ve been in my backyard quite a lot. I started something of a hummingbird-friendly project last year, planting lots of native salvias as well as some cuphea to help feed my tiny feathered friends. They’ve been visiting with regularity since. They’ve also let me get close enough to capture helpful reference photos.

When I began these paintings, I got the idea to incorporate a hexagon into the background of my pieces. Something about that shape is quite soothing to me. I was reading more about it and it’s appearance in nature (hello, honeycomb).

Take a look at photos of Saturn and you’ll find a hexagonal cloud formation at its north pole. Check out the Devils Postpile in Calfornia and you’ll see a number of basalt columns, each in a hexagonal shape. The same can be found in Northern Ireland at the Giant’s Causeway. Snowflakes are also hexagonal, as are a whole family of crystals. The natural occurrence of hexagons in nature seems to go on and on.

It turns out the hexagon is a truly remarkable shape. It’s the most efficient way to fill a space with the least amount of material – no wasted space, no wasted energy. And I’m a huge fan of efficiency.

In my reading, I stumbled up on the phrase “Spontaneous Resting States.” What a peculiar phrase…both energized and not. At any rate, that’s where the title of this series comes from. I hope you enjoy these paintings!