Description
I started this piece with something simple and practical: a leftover sheet of pegboard. I liked the idea of using a material that isn’t “meant” to be a canvas, so I treated it as an invitation to experiment. The first step was a straightforward heart—just paint and instinct—but once it was down, the image felt too quiet for what I wanted to say.
To bring it to life, I built a burst of energy around the heart, using layered strokes of warm colour radiating outward like light or motion. The heart suddenly felt alive and dynamic, but something was still missing. All that movement needed a counterpoint—a sense of calm that didn’t match the intensity of the colours at first glance.
After sitting with the piece for a while, I realized I wanted to show a relaxed heart inside all that chaos, not a frantic one. That’s when I decided to add the jagged line across the heart, based on the heart rate of someone in meditation. What might first look like a crack or a scar is actually a calm, steady pulse. The piece became about that tension: a heart that’s glowing, bursting and expanding, yet grounded in deep rest and inner stillness.
