Artist Statement: Rabbit Spirit

Rabbit Spirit - 16”x20” Acrylic on Canvas

I started this painting while I was on a road trip without much of a plan other than to keep driving west. I stayed at a tiny house in Portland, Oregon when I began painting the rabbit. Throughout my road trip, I would randomly add the different elements to the painting whenever ideas would come to me. I painted the mountains in the back of my car on a rainy day at Mount Rainier in Washington. I painted the chrysanthemum and the sun in a tent pitched in a desert in Utah.

Often times, a rabbit’s natural reaction is to run the moment it hears something. The rabbit in this painting is doing the opposite. It’s in a fighting stance because it has no intention of running away. It is facing the sun, which gives the rabbit visibility to see clearly. It seeks clarity and truth. I added hints of purple to represent the crown chakra which is about intuition and seeing the world around you in a nonjudgmental way.