This canvas started out with the idea to paint a colorless mottled gray background and then to create a scene on top of that, a bit of a different approach than I usually take. But then these shapes began to emerge out of the smoke, as if the figures had been there all along and were tapping me on the shoulder to give them recognition and form. I don't know where any of them are from, but I know this is a place where they meet in their thoughts, where pain clings to them, where struggles haven't been resolved, but where their similar energies keep them bound together while they search for their own individual answers. There are many stories here.