Breakout

24″ x 36″ Acrylic on Canvas
$1,350 Unframed

Some paintings arrive fully formed in my mind before I begin. Breakout was not one of them.

Like much of my work, this painting began with a figure. Not a portrait or a literal representation of a person, but a human presence—a starting point from which the painting could evolve. As layers of color and line accumulated, the figure became increasingly abstract, fragmented and reassembled through a network of geometric shapes and flowing contours.

The title Breakout emerged late in the process. Looking at the finished piece, I saw a tension between containment and freedom. Dark linear structures create boundaries, compartments, and constraints, while the warmer organic forms seem determined to push beyond them. The painting became a reflection on a question that has surfaced repeatedly throughout my life: How do we balance structure and freedom?

That question has followed me through several careers. I entered college intending to become an aerospace engineer, earned a degree in graphic design instead, and eventually became a lawyer. Each discipline taught me the value of order, analysis, and precision. Yet art has always remained the place where I can step beyond certainty and make room for discovery.

In Breakout, geometry and gesture exist in conversation. The geometric elements suggest systems, rules, and the frameworks we build to understand the world. The flowing forms suggest movement, intuition, and transformation. Neither dominates the other. Instead, they create a dynamic tension that mirrors the human experience of living between what confines us and what calls us forward.

Color plays an important role in that dialogue. Layers of blues, earth tones, deep reds, and warm neutrals interact to create shifting harmonies across the surface. As with much of my work, the final relationships between colors could not be fully planned. They emerged gradually through the process, revealing connections and themes that only became visible over time.

For me, Breakout is ultimately about possibility. It is about the moments when we move beyond the expectations imposed by others—or by ourselves—and discover something larger waiting on the other side. The painting doesn’t offer answers so much as an invitation: to embrace uncertainty, to trust the process, and to allow something unexpected to emerge.

Perhaps we all need a breakout now and then.