My Valentine

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 4ft x 4ft
Creation Date: 2021
Collection: Ephemeral Atmosphere

My Valentine (2021) is a love letter left open — not polished, not perfect, but real. Part of the Ephemeral Atmosphere Collection, this 48 x 48 inch acrylic painting explores intimacy through texture, tone, and restraint. It captures love not as an ideal, but as a fleeting, felt presence.

Soft reds blend into pale pinks, with undertones of lavender and grey. The surface is layered like skin: vulnerable, weathered, warm. Delicate brushstrokes meet moments of friction — as if emotion has been gently pressed into the canvas. The effect is tender and unresolved.

This work was created around Valentine’s Day, but it resists the commercial imagery often associated with it. Instead, My Valentine asks: what does love look like in memory? In grief? In imperfection?

It shares sensibilities with Etel Adnan, whose abstract landscapes are as much about feeling as they are about place. Like Adnan, I let color speak quietly — not to declare, but to hold. The painting is intimate, almost private. A kind of emotional atmosphere you wander into.

There’s no literal heart. No symbol. Just space — saturated, fragile, open. My Valentine is about what remains when love is stripped of performance.

As part of the Ephemeral Atmosphere Collection, this piece whispers. It doesn’t need to shout. It’s a moment of presence, a breath held between longing and grace.