Ritual of Becoming is a painting created as both a devotional act and a witness to change. Measuring 12×36×2, it is built entirely in acrylic, with blacklight‑reactive layers that reveal hidden dimensions when the light shifts. For six months, it lived in an office in Columbus, quietly holding space for others before returning to me—its journey mirroring the extended arc of transformation that unfolds far beyond the canvas.
Butterflies emerge throughout the composition: some still cocooned, others breaking open, and a few fully unfurled into renewal. They serve as living metaphors for the cycles of grief, resilience, and becoming. Each brushstroke was a ritual gesture, layered with intention, silence, and lineage. The textures swirl like emotional topographies—mapping the unseen labor of metamorphosis, the sacred pause before flight, and the miracle of emergence.
The blacklight‑reactive pigments are essential to the work. They create a dual‑light experience where hidden words, symbols, and energies surface only in altered illumination. This mirrors the interior work of transformation—the quiet, unseen shifts that happen in shadow before they burst into radiance.
Rooted in my Structures Undefined ethos, Ritual of Becoming blends intuitive composition with symbolic imagery to create an immersive environment. It is both a portal and a mirror, inviting viewers to honor their own cocoon, their own emergence, their own extended journey of becoming.
