This is a painting based on our backyard in Highland Park in March 2026. I was enchanted by the way the dandelions in the sunlight popped out against the parts of the yard that were in shadow, almost floating, perfectly still, the only movement from little bugs flitting between them.

That first day I wasn't thinking about dandelions as vehicles for wishes, but the day after I took the reference photo, they were all mowed down. So I thought this might be a painting about how not choosing a direction leads to a loss of opportunities. By the time I finished the painting, though, new dandelions were already popping up, so maybe it’s also about new chances?

In any case, the jumbled/confused arrangement of the stalks at different depths of focus is working for me as a metaphor for indecision, opportunity costs, and FOMO (see also Sylvia Plath's fig tree analogy).