an essence of smoke

Smoke here is treated as something ubiquitous: a material that is everywhere and nowhere at once, like sky, breath, or memory. The painting moves with that logic, allowing forms to blur, disperse, and re-form rather than settle into fixed imagery. What begins as a grounded surface becomes increasingly atmospheric, suggesting movement, dissolution, and permeability.

The collaborative process is also central. Making alongside family becomes part of the work’s structure, echoing the artist’s broader engagement with communal practices of care, including their relationship to plant medicine and altered states of perception. In this way, the painting is not only about smoke, but about shared attention