For many, Flagstaff is part of the journey of life many refer to as the “Silk Road.” After hearing the story of how so many people arrive in Flagstaff on this “silk road” I was inspired to paint Silk Road. Life is a journey is a favorite mantra of mine. I wanted to capture that journey with some of the destinations many land as they travel on this silk road. In the before picture, you can see the initial road that inspired the placement for the words. I thought about each location “Asheville,” “Taos,” and “Flagstaff”as mile markers along the road. As I laid down the words “Silk Road” on the ‘pavement’ on the canvas, I realized that the words “Trail of Energy” could be the painted line dividing our road. After hours of working with the painting and not seeing the piece develop like I was hoping it would, I decided to incorporate another medium, sand, for the first time. After I started working with the sand the hours of work began to be broken up with the sand and paint started to peel up as I was painting. It gave me another opportunity to reveal the layers that I had painted over regarding the initial inspirational words. You can see the layers of paint that I marked off to highlight the key destinations that inspired the piece. As I did this, I kept adding to it and the paint I got to the point that I couldn’t do anything else with and said I need to let it dry. As I completed it for that moment, I thought to myself “I’m going to paint over it” because I wasn’t sure what else to do with it. When I let it sit, the piece came together in a way I hadn’t seen before. I sat back and began observing the layers, there was a depth and age to the piece even though it was only hours old. I decided it was complete and really loved it. The hours and hours and hours I spent creating this piece was worth it to bring you Silk Road. 

In joy,