Melancholy II is an exploration of the complexity of the blues, which are a complicated mix of emotions all at once, rather than a series of distinct emotions. In a world gone upside down and radically unpredictable, it's important to honor exactly where we are, rather than where we think we "should" be. I tried to mirror the dynamic flow of emotion in my approach to this painting. It's a distillation of warms and cools, with vulnerable, risky "declared" chroma departures exactly at the plane changes, where shadows become light and light falls to shadow. These hits of unexpected color hues call out the little gems and insights we feel in shifting planes of emotion when we are truly present, when we are willing to accept all of ourselves, not just part.