LALATOWN LIFE

This painting didn’t begin as one piece.

It began a year apart.

The girl stepping out of the portal was painted almost a year ago.

At the time, she belonged to a completely different world—a quiet little fantasy background stitched from my imagination.

I didn’t know where she was going or what she was walking toward.

I just knew she was walking somewhere.

Months later, I traveled to New Zealand.

And on the highways, I kept noticing hills dotted with those iconic trees—people call them Christmas trees because they look like ornaments scattered across the landscape.

I didn’t know why they felt familiar.

I only knew they looked like something I had seen before.