Failing Towards Brilliance

Failing Towards Brilliance (16" x 20", oil, 2025) is a deeply personal exploration of grief, heritage, and artistic process. Inspired by Arshile Gorky’s The Artist and His Mother, this work reflects on the tension between intention and outcome, and how repeated “failures” can still hold meaning. The portrait of my late mother was built, erased, and remade multiple times, becoming both a painting and a record of struggle. It questions whether the act of reworking can be a form of honoring. See my blog post describing the process here for a deeper look at the evolution of this piece.