This Peony marked my return to oil painting after years of working digitally with a stylus and tablet, and I remember how good it felt just to hear the bristle brushes scraping against the canvas again. A viewer once looked at the center of this piece and said, “Oh, a baby’s head cresting,” which wasn’t what I set out to paint but felt exactly right, since this painting really was the beginning of something new emerging in my own work. I think of that center as its own small world, planetary at times, inward and spiritual at others, and I like that everyone who stands before it finds a different journey inside.