"Into the Cave" is all about the artist getting back in touch with the passion of making art and building on the foundation that supports it. I re-imagine my previous work as cave paintings, pulling from different stages of growth to represent my art making history on this cave wall. For example, the mermaid and the medusa from my "Mermaid Mother" painting are alongside a standing self portrait and dream paintings from high school to show their recent addition and their importance among them.
To create a cave wall I added sand (with lots of shell fragments and other things) from a local Florida beach. I painted modge podge onto the canvas, sprinkled handfuls of sand across it while it was wet, and gently tilted the canvas this way and that to evenly coat the surface and shake off excess. I then let the coating dry. Later, I painted the surface with some thinner acrylics to get into all the nooks and crannies of the gritty surface.