Something happened when you saw this. What was it?
Abstract Inquiry · 2023
Fire Fly
Available · in the studio, Phoenix
Fire that detached from its source and learned to move on its own terms — the inquiry into what fire becomes when it's free.
Fire Fly (2023) is a small explosion of joy — a painting that captures the flicker of life that moves too fast to catch but leaves an afterglow. This 36 x 36 inch mixed media work is part of The Pulse of LifeCollection, and like the name suggests, it exists in flashes: of light, of memory, of pure sensation.
The canvas dances with bursts of gold, neon orange, warm pink, and sapphire, scattered across a dark, twilight-like background. Each stroke is quick, playful, and deliberate — like sparks skipping across the surface. There’s rhythm, but no symmetry. Chaos, but no confusion. The light moves how it wants to.
I created Fire Fly while chasing a feeling of aliveness — not the big, dramatic kind, but the quiet thrill of a moment when something beautiful moves past you and you almost miss it. It’s about those emotional flashes that feel like light: fast, ephemeral, illuminating.
In style and intention, this piece shares resonance with Sam Francis, particularly his joyful handling of color as energy. Like Francis, I see pigment not as decoration but as sensation — a trace of something felt before it was understood.
Fire Fly is not about fire. It’s about flicker. About presence that refuses to stay still. It doesn’t ask for attention. It grabs it, glows, and moves on.
As part of the Ephemeral Atmosphere Collection, this painting reminds us to feel what arrives in flashes — and to let it go before trying to name it.
Where to see it. In person at RituStudio, Phoenix, by appointment. Represented by Jarrow & Goodman, Los Angeles.
The space it needs
- Wall
- At least 8 ft wide
- Ceiling
- 9 ft or more
- Light
- Natural light preferred — oil layers shift through the day
- Daylight
- Silver white flickers across graphite black and shadowed umber. Direct sun flattens the dark ground, but the high contrast keeps the flashes alive; indirect light lets them move freely.
Lives best in
Living room 5/5
Fire Fly earns its place here because a living room tolerates a restless painting, and the silver-white flickers against graphite black will read differently at noon than at dusk as natural light moves across the oil layers.
Hotel lobby 4/5
The five-foot canvas commands a lobby wall without overpowering it, and the mood-5 aliveness gives arriving guests a pulse of energy that earns that first impression without requiring them to stop and decode it.
Details
- Size
- 5 × 5 ft (W × H)
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Year
- 2023
- Collection
- Abstract Inquiry
- Palette
- Graphite Black · Shadowed Umber · Moss · Silver White · Deep Shadow · Ash Gray
- Weight
- About 45 lb
- Ready
- In the studio; delivery 8–12 weeks
Its ArtGram
ArtGram.Sprig
- Texture4
- Form2
- Colour range3
- Palette2.9
- Contrast4.7
- Abstraction Quotient3
