Duality of Light Dahlia is a large-scale oil painting inspired by a cactus Dahlia grown in my own garden, but its real subject is duality. The upper petals reach towards the top of the painting in warm golds and luminous pinks, full of optimism and light, while the lower petals curve downward into deeper, more turbulent tones. At the heart of the flower, the forms are most resolved: crisp, vivid, alive with clarity. But as the eye travels outward through each layer, edges soften and color gives way gradually to the atmosphere around it, as if the flower is both emerging from and returning to the world. The center holds. Everything else is in motion.