Carrying Water, Chopping Wood is the climax of the stylized work I pursued over more than 3 years.  It is a traditional image of Karma Yoga, the yoga of daily living.  This doctrine encourages doing what you do, but making it sacred.  It is a personal symbol of me relaxing into my work and feeling at ease with it.  Here, the figures exist harmoniously in a world that is more active than any I’d painted previously, and which for the first time I painted using my bare hands as much as any brushes.  The ambitious scale of the piece is meant to convey a sense of mastery and power derived from renunciation and acceptance.