Painting ‘Tree Goddess’ was quite the journey! I took her on in many stage and got to know her and myself in the process. I was commissioned to create a large painting for a new office space and I was free to chose what to paint! I knew I wanted to paint a tree as I wanted her to represent the growth and new roots that were being planted in the new office. I began very confidently and was in the “flow” of painting. I was very pleased with where I was when I took a break to take a look at my progress. I was so excited to see a slight silhouette of a woman in the trunk of the tree! I was so excited that I immediately began to add more paint in an attempt to enhance her visually, but then I realized way too much paint had been added and it looked…TERRIBLE and a little scary!! I decided I needed to take a break. I let myself think about whether I should keep going with this painting or to start over. After a couple of weeks of space, I decided to keep going. I had the idea of adding some gold leaf to the area with too much black paint. I kept working with her and trusting. Eventually, she became something new! I no longer visually saw the woman that I initially had, but I kept the essence of her in the painting.

Here is the caption I wrote on my Instagram post when I finally completed Tree Goddess:

“I came back to my tree today and added gold leaf over the area where I added too much paint. I realized that the woman in the tree emerged so that I could see her and know her. I kept her essence and wisdom throughout the tree with gold and specific symbols. The gold leaf represents her wisdom and moves from the top of the tree down the spine and throughout parts of the branches. Swipe to see details. Last photo is of the over painted version. 😂♥️🙏🏼 It’s been a while since I had to work through a “mess up” but it’s a reminder to me of keeping with it and trusting your intuition. I almost gave up on this one but I’m glad I stayed with her!”

Painting once again teaches me how to trust!