About this piece

"I haven't accomplished enough, I'm not where I'm supposed to be, I'm not doing it right, something is missing." The usual rotation of pre-birthday thoughts was conspicuously absent as I approached my 40th birthday, because things felt different and extraordinarily special. Over the past 6 months, I'd committed myself to doing hard work (both spiritually and artistically) and the rewards were been exponentially greater and richer than the countless hours I'd put in. In a matter of weeks, never having animated anything before (and feeling rather intimidated by the process), I taught myself how turn my paintings into moving narratives, simultaneously opening up a completely new way of thinking about the world and about my own reality.

Pushing myself past my comfort zone showed me that despite all my self-doubt, I really did have something to say, and a unique way of saying it. In the spirit of continuing to explore the unknown depths of my own mind and heart, I decided to animate one of the first pieces I created in this series over 2 years prior (which I had presciently titled "the Unknown.") The hidden world inside this piece was just waiting for the right time reveal itself, and I couldn't imagine a better visual metaphor for that very meaningful birthday.