Painting
The Full Moon Over Water Series
The full moon over water recurs in my paintings, a light in darkness that invites reflection and personal radiance — a reminder to trust what unfolds, as image, sound, and symbol quietly guide the work. The water itself functions as a psychological container, allowing the subconscious flow to be observed and held. As bell hooks reminds us, “To love, we must first face our own darkness.”
The Moon Over Water series represents the structural harmony of the resolved state. For me, the moon is a symbol of renewal. Even in the night, it assures us that light is possible. From that radiance, I turn inward — exploring how cycles of darkness and illumination shape both my paintings and photographs. I use highly textural, layered surfaces to physically map the intensity of this emotional transition, visualizing the process of regulation. These works embody my ongoing practice of transforming struggle into imagery that is at once intimate and universal, offering light not only for myself but for those who encounter the paintings.
Full Moon Sebago, Triada Samaras 2023, watercolor on paper, 9 x 9 inches
Moon Over Waters 5, Triada Samaras 2025, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
Moon Over Waters 6, Triada Samaras 2025, acrylic on panel, 24 x 18 inches
The Regulation Series: Building External Constraint
Alongside my moon paintings, this work forms the structural core of my practice. These pieces emerge from methodical lines that trace raw, intense emotional energy onto the page/canvas—a process that moves the feeling from internal pressure to external structure.
Where the Moon Over Water series represents the structural harmony, these transitional works chart the active journey of regulation. I move inward, charting an inner landscape where the initial feeling expands and transforms, a journey of active regulation.
This process, shaped by a carefully chosen palette and guided by loose themes such as moon over water or heartbreak, ensures the feeling resolves into resilience and structural strength.
Long Covid Works: Emerging from the Dark
These paintings emerged directly from the physical experience of living with Long Covid. During that difficult first year, my body was both the subject and the central metaphor—a place carrying memory, desire, and intense uncertainty.
Here I I use heavy, dark shapes and fragments of anatomy to convey the sheer density and gravity of that time. The palette is often near-black, exploring the feeling of a system shutting down. Through the relationship between line, form, and color, I seek out what persists when the body falters. This series is an account of how the act of expression itself became the necessary, crucial opening, moving me from that deep, isolating darkness toward the light.
The Unbound Series: Unburdening
The Unbound Series was a period of intense, radical expressive inquiry into the very nature of systemic constraint. These canvases document the vital act of breaking emotional bonds and severing the invisible ropes that bound me. In these works, I used raw, volatile energy to explore the limits of my visual language, using the house and body as architectural metaphors for disarray.
The poem, “Wind blows through me. Bright light finds the empty spot in my mind,” guides many of these paintings, either written directly onto the surface or serving as a deep, resonant inspiration. Through color, volatile form, and dynamic movement, these canvases map my journey from shadow to radical expression, capturing memory, desire, and the transformative power of making myself unbound.
