This mural detail (approximately 5'x7') from a 17'-wide mural, donated to a domestic violence shelter, depicts cottonwood trees along the Boise River in Idaho. The imagery and its mood were inspired by an early 19th century Japanese screen, painted by Kishi Ganku, of a bamboo forest.

I made the decision to incorporate a lot of negative space because in the philosophy of Japanese Buddhism, "nothingness" is not regarded as just empty space. Rather, it's a space for potentiality, and that is a good metaphor for the transitions experienced by the women staying in this domestic violence shelter.