This painting was inspired by the song "Lilac Wine", sung by the incomparable Nina Simone. Her voice has a way of reaching deep-grabbing hold of the heart with every note. Lilac Wine is a song about intoxication-not just with alcohol, but with love, memory, and the blurred line between truth and illusion.
There's a kind of calm chaos in that state-where clarity and confusion swirl together and that's what I wanted to capture in this piece. The surface is filled with tiny, luminous bubbles, like fragments of thought or feeling rising slowly to the surface.
It's hypnotic, like Nina's voice-soft, stirring, and slightly disorienting. This painting holds the kind of quiet courage it takes to feel your emotions fully and let them rise-especially the ones that hurt the most.
Beeswax, damar resin, dry pigments and shellac on cradled wood panel
