Maybe we can express ourselves more fully if we did it without words —Angelica Huston, Darjeeling Limited Art provides us a way to be more awake to life, with an unconditional autonomy to imagine and create new worlds. From visions of utopia to acts of creative resistance, when we create and interact with art, we become more curious, more connected, to ourselves and others and to the beauty and mystery of life. For The Way Out is In, my intention was to create meditative, non-hierarchical, and transparent work, along with an occasional detour. In essence, a rediscovering of the joy which clarity brings and paring down to what is essential —form, light and color. The process allowed me to press pause and to experience a kind of inward stillness, especially welcome in these times of uncertainty, when “we find ourselves distracted from distraction, by distraction,” as T.S. Eliot wrote in Four Quartets. Circles and grids continue to inspire and form the foundation of my work. The auspicious circle, endlessly dynamic, always brings energy and wonder. While it’s true that a circle is simply a line turned on itself, its form is symbolic and represents wholeness, inclusivity, protection, balance and the cycle of life. There’s an ease of mind and a heartfelt nowness and oneness that comes with drawing and experiencing circles. Complementing circles, grids are an essential foundation of human organization and creation. From architecture to maps, to a screen of infinite pixels, the grid offers a space of unlimited possibility, a unified field to explore and a ground in which to navigate and experience a landscape of mediations and detours.