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This is one of my personal favorites – it always ends up being the centerpiece of whichever room I hang it in. I painted it over the course of a few weeks, working in the evenings after I finished my delivery job. I was rewatching Twin Peaks at the time and listened to a lot of Julee Cruise while I was painting it. I didn’t use any brushes while I was making this piece – instead, I used rags. I would dip the rags in paint, then splatter, drag, rub, and sweep them across the surface of the canvas. Ragging introduces probability into the painting process, allowing unexpected textures and images to emerge from the canvas. I was doing a lot of ragging in this period, usually combined with brushwork as well. This piece is a great example of pure ragging, without any brushes.
One of the nights I was working on this piece, a fire broke out on the hillside across the valley. It was about 3AM and I could see the fire spreading from the window of my room. I stopped painting and watched it burn for a while, debating if I needed to evacuate. Eventually, fire trucks arrived and put it out. As soon as the last flame was extinguished, I heard cheers erupt throughout the valley. It was a very surreal experience to realize that hundreds of people throughout the valley were all sitting, watching, and reacting to the same high-stakes event at 3AM.