Revisiting the Playground: Finding Joy in a Chaotic Triptych”?

This morning, I finally got my triptych up on the wall as I prep for the big show. Originally, these pieces just felt like a play of lines and negative space to me, kind of architectural and neat. But once they were hanging up, I realized they actually look like this messy, abandoned pile of kids’ toys in a corner—chaotic, playful, but definitely telling a story.

And that got me thinking: it’s kind of like the art version of Toy Story. We all have these things from childhood that we just leave behind. They used to make us happy, and then we grow up and move on to more “adult” toys or pursuits. But there’s nothing actually wrong with those old sources of joy. In fact, stepping back into them can be pretty fulfilling. I realized I did the same thing with my art—I left it for a long time, even though it makes me genuinely happy. Coming back to it, this triptych kind of represents that whole theme for the show: