This intricate, labor-intensive, mosaic-style painting was inspired the view of the sea from afar, specifically by the many hikes that I take in the East Bay Hills looking down at the San Francisco Bay from a distance. From far away the ocean looks much paler than up close, particularly in the late afternoon when the sunlight turns parts of it pale silver like liquid metal. The shimmering effect of the silver grid lines is reminiscent of art deco paintings but the pale aqua shades have a lighter, more modern feel.
There is balance though no precise symmetrical pattern among the 800 little shades of aqua in this abstract shimmering sea. The silver metallic paint or the grid lines appears pale platinum in direct light and darker antique silver in the shade. The painting literally changes colors as you walk past it from left to right.

The pattern began as a spontaneous collage of 800 tiny adhesive strips forming 800 little rectangles with no two quite alike. Rather than one large solid cut stencil as is used in screen printing, I placed tiny hand-cut adhesive masks one by one in vertical columns like a loom until it looked balanced and then painted from left to right as if weaving a tapestry of one shade of thread at a time. The 1.5-deep gallery wrapped sides of the canvas are painted silver, the same silver making up the undercoat peeking through the entire painting. There is no need for a frame. it ships ready to hang with a wire on the back side.