you can't swim out of your gene pool

2003
korean egg tempera, watercolor, permanent marker & glitter hairspray on arches cold press
36" x 53"

this was my final piece for the abstract watercolor class i took during my third year at UVA. my professor, megan marlatt, was the first teacher i had who would actually tell you when your work sucked, which was both amusing and refreshing. thankfully, she usually gave me positive feedback or would exclaim, "that's wild!" during my critiques. this particular piece received a "that's wild" and an A+. the title is something her father always used to say, and she made us base our final paintings on it.

this is my depiction of a purebred family tree that's been preserved in a glass case but is now getting too big for it—we'll say that the case represents old rules and traditions. so, of course, the glass breaks and the tree is exposed to the other races, causing it to become less distinctive and more muddled. it's a painting about growth and change. though you can't swim out of your gene pool—that is, the tree will never become a bird or a shrub—your gene pool can change over time.