Unrequited — Interior States

24 × 24 inches | Original Contemporary Abstract Painting

In Unrequited, I explore an interior state shaped by desire—the intensity of feeling that can exist entirely within us, whether or not it is ever returned.

I chose a palette of deep cherry red, saturated orange, coral and blush pink for their physicality and heat. Red and orange carry an almost bodily energy for me: passion, attraction, longing and the sensation of something burning beneath the surface. Yet as the architectural planes move inward, that intensity gives way to a softer and more romantic center.

The center of the painting reminds me of the atmosphere of Rococo painting—lush, intimate and almost dreamlike. Blush pinks, creamy passages and gestural marks seem to dissolve into one another, creating a romantic interior contained within the stronger geometry surrounding it. I love the tension between those two languages: the structure of the outer space and the vulnerability and abandon of what it holds.

That contrast is central to my Interior States collection. I use architectural perspective, saturated color and abstract gesture to create spaces that can be read both physically and psychologically. The perspective draws us toward an interior, but what we encounter there isn't a literal room. It is an emotional state.

In Unrequited, that state is longing. The painting holds the heat, beauty and contradiction of desire—the experience of carrying something intensely within ourselves that may never fully find its way outward.

For me, Unrequited is a room built around a feeling: passion contained, romanticized and held just beyond reach.