This work is not a "painting" in the traditional sense, as it includes sculptural elements such as game-used hockey sticks, goalie cage, and bees sculpted with clay, wire, and epoxy resin. Some of the bees appear to hover a few inches away from the surface, and the surface itself has ridges, indentations, and various forms in an irregular shape. These are some things that might get lost on a computer screen.

Part of my Rise Fall Rise series, this piece continues the theme: the surface includes papers -- legal opinions from California courts (torn from California Reporter) as metaphors for controversies we may encounter in our lives; the hockey sticks and goalie cage are used by a hockey goalie for defense and protection; the playing cards are the deal, perhaps random, perhaps stacked; and the bees represent a society or community and those stings we get, a single one or a potentially fatal swarm. Even when we think we are prepared, the stings can find their way in.

The Deal, 63" x 59", oil, acrylic, game-used hockey sticks and goalie cage, playing cards, clay, epoxy resin, aluminum screen, wire, wood, paper, plastic sheet, canvas, 2015.