The owl arrived before I knew what the painting was about. He usually does. I've learned to let him show me.
These are real books from my studio shelf. I painted every spine from life. They are my education — the one I gave myself.
He represents everything that can't be domesticated — in art, in a life. You can sit at your worktable all you like. The tiger is still in the room.
I think of him as the part of me that draws without thinking. Before the hand knows what it's doing. Before the mind interferes.