Not for sale

16 × 20”

Oil on canvas

At the end of my third trimester, I got an inner nudge to paint a door. I kept hearing the words “portal”, “passage”, “gate”… and I couldn’t let the idea go. It felt so relevant to the life phase I was in — standing at the threshold of what was coming next, full of mystery and anticipation, no idea what the other side would be like.

I wasn’t certain I’d have time to flesh out the idea fully before my son arrived, but I started the painting at 39 weeks pregnant. It was a little frantic, rushed. I was working on it the night my water broke and I went into labor.

And then it sat untouched on my easel for months as I got to know this new being and way of being. As I neared the end of my 31st rotation around the sun, I felt called to finish it.