VELVET ASH was born from something that had already existed. Beneath this work there is another painting, an earlier surface, an earlier moment. I chose to paint over it, not to erase it, but to transform it. That is part of why this piece carries its name: Velvet Ash. Something soft, almost delicate, and yet born from what has already burned.

I created this work during a time in my life when I felt the need to rise again. Not in a dramatic way, but inwardly. Quietly. I felt the desire to leave behind certain emotional remains and turn them into something more intimate, more refined, more alive. This painting came from that space between what falls away and what begins again.

My footprint is still there, but it is almost hidden. You do not see it immediately, and perhaps that is exactly the point. Some traces do not need to declare themselves loudly to remain present. For me, that subtle imprint holds something essential: a physical memory, a quiet proof that I was there, that I passed through this transformation, and that I left part of myself inside the work.

VELVET ASH is one of the pieces that represents me most deeply. It speaks of fragility, rebirth, softness and survival all at once. I do not want to decide what someone else should see in it. I only know the place from which it was born. And perhaps that is what makes it so personal: it carries the feeling of returning to life with grace, after fire.