“Not Very Tasty”

I started 2026 with the idea of focusing my studio work on the Chinese peony. The brush work is counter intuitive and the loading requires a lot of the patience that I have often lacked in execution. So, it seemed like a good place to nest in order to get the year started off right— lots of learning and humbling insights into places where I needed to go. What I didn’t realize is that peony are lush expressions of optimism and hope for abundance and flourishing. This was a wonderful surprise that has lifted my spirits during the “down times” of the first half of the year. To me, peony has come to mean “the best is yet to come,” and recently that has been a helpful thought. “Not Very Tasty” is another try at master Xu Hong Bin’s “grass-insect” painting of crickets. There’s still more work to do there, but I was happy with the little drama that emerged as the cricket eyed the little lady bug. Lady bugs are, in fact, not tasty and predators have to be very hungry before they give them a try.