Painting

Nocturnal Overgrowth

Part of the Metallic Eruption series

A dense tangle of fluorescent orange and electric chartreuse cascades down a deep midnight field, punctuated by scattered interference dots that hover like strange bioluminescent spores. The vertical drip lines slash through the composition with urgency — orange veins and yellow-green tendrils weaving and crossing over a dark navy-purple ground, creating the feeling of some wild nighttime garden caught mid-explosion. Lavender and pale green orbs drift across the surface like pollen suspended in blacklight. The interference layers here are stacked and complex. That broad golden wash running through the center shifts from warm bronze to cool silver depending on where you stand. The scattered dots — painted with interference violet and green — appear to float above the surface, catching ambient light and pulsing between visible and ghostly. Under direct light the piece is a riot of neon energy; in softer light, the metallic underlayers emerge and the whole thing glows differently. This one was built fast and physical — heavy pours of fluorescent acrylic over a dark base, followed by interference gold dragged and splattered across the wet surface. The dots were placed deliberately among the chaos, a rhythmic counterpoint to the aggressive vertical drips. You can see in the macro shots how the interference paint sits on the canvas weave, catching texture and creating a metallic topography that photographs can only hint at. Multiple layers were thrown down while everything was still moving. Painted at my homestead studio in Riverside, Washington — where the night sky is dark enough that this kind of color feels like it actually exists out there somewhere.