Divided Sky is unique in that it is both the tenth painting in my Psychedelic Donut series, and the first painting in the Echoes of Illumination series. It was created while listening to a live recording of Phish's "Divided Sky", from 4/23/23, in Los Angeles, CA.

It was inspired by a lighting effect at a Phish concert in which stage lights were projected in a donut pattern onto a falling “curtain” of sand that was being dropped from the rafters. It created these stunning, shimmering donuts that looked like they were made of threads of shifting light. The image stuck with me, and I returned to it in my mind’s eye, over and over until I decided to try and paint it.

The process of capturing this effect of the light in Divided Sky, lead not only to a new visual style – but into new methods of working. I moved away from the more spontaneous, loose expression into a much more methodical, slow meditative process whereby an image slowly emerges from layer upon layer of thin vertical lines of paint. Explorations in this style have become my Echoes of Illumination Series.