Last year, I began a series titled “Breath of Life.” This group of paintings connects with gardening grounding my overall sense of being alive. The situational wholeness of inner stillness, renewal of energy and clarity of mind and a more settled purposefulness are transformative.

While placing my hands in the directed toil of the soil to tend the plants, I find myself amidst a small bourgeoning ecosystem comprised chiefly of birds, lizards and insects in the relative quiet of the outdoors.

Many compositional elements from my earlier series of paintings — “Wheel within a Wheel,” “Elan Flow,” and “Wooded Terrain” — have re-emerged as spokes in the conceptual workings of a longstanding form of meditation in my art practice on the forces at work, alongside the processes and patterns in nature.

“Breath of Life” draws from the vitality found outdoors. It’s a time in nature that furthers creative perception while becoming akin to an essential sanctuary.