Blog Archives
Emotionally Open & Spiritually Attentive
Composed in Silk blends vivid portraits with short essays about stillness, grace, identity, and the long, slow work of becoming, taking readers on a reflective journey tracing the movement between silence and revelation. What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
Composed in Silk is the second book in a five-book series titled The Life’s Theater: Art and Essays from Behind the Curtain, and it is dedicated to my wife. Each portrait in the book is highly stylized and created in my own distinctive painting style, with one exception. The final portrait is rendered in a realistic style using classical technique.
The portraits are small seconds of my wife’s presence. They are heartbeats of her silence, quiet, stillness, grace, identity, and the long, slow work of becoming. Although the figures do not physically resemble her, each image carries her mood, her rhythm, and a frozen moment that is unmistakably hers. What mattered most to me was capturing not likeness, but essence, allowing stillness to speak as loudly as form.
Can you share a bit about your writing process and how you selected the artwork that accompanies each writing?
Throughout my creative life as an artist and painter, I have followed Leonardo da Vinci’s view of art, which I believe remains timeless and deeply relevant today. For him, art arises from careful observation guided by intellect. He believed that true art is not the result of skilled hands alone, but of a thoughtful mind capable of understanding the complexity of nature and translating that understanding into expression. Studying nature was essential, not to imitate it mechanically, but to reveal the intentions and insights of the artist’s mind.
My process begins long before a painting is completed. I observe, study, create thumbnails and rough sketches, and work toward developing a unique style. During this time, I also take notes, sometimes just a few sentences, sometimes a paragraph, capturing my observations and emotional responses. Over time, these notes become part of the painting itself. They live within the work for years, shaping its meaning and presence, until they eventually find their way into a two- or three-hundred-word essay that accompanies the artwork. In this way, image and language grow from the same moment of attention and reflection.
Do you think there is a particular mindset or environment that a reader should be in to fully appreciate your work?
Composed in Silk, and the entire series The Life’s Theater: Art and Essays from Behind the Curtain, are not meant for everyone. They are for readers who are emotionally open and spiritually attentive, who appreciate an image on canvas not only as a painting, but as an emotional moment worth entering. The work invites readers to explore both the artist’s inner state and the subject’s emotional presence at a particular moment in time.
I do not expect the book or the images to resonate with a large audience, and I accept that some readers may connect with certain pieces while others may not connect at all. The work was created for me, from my heart and my emotions, and Composed in Silk was dedicated to my wife.
What will the next book in that series be about, and when will it be published?
The next book in the series is The Life’s Theater, Book Four: The Places That Carried Us. It is dedicated to my brother and explores memory, places, and the landscapes that shape who we become. The tentative publication date is the first half of March 2026.
The full chronology of the series is as follows:
- The Life’s Theater, Book One: Echoes That Suffocate, dedicated to my parents. Published and available on Amazon.
- The Life’s Theater, Book Two: Composed in Silk, dedicated to my wife. Published and available on Amazon.
- The Life’s Theater, Book Three: The Quiet Architecture of Love, dedicated to my sons. Just published and available on Amazon.
- The Life’s Theater, Book Four: The Places That Carried Us, dedicated to my brother. Tentative publication date: first half of March 2026.
- The Life’s Theater, Book Five: Geometry of Memory and Light. Dedication to be decided. Tentative publication date: summer 2026.
- The Life’s Theater: Art and Essays from Behind the Curtain, the complete edition. Tentative publication date: late 2026 or sometime in 2027.
Together, the series forms a single, continuous meditation on memory, love, and the emotional spaces we inhabit over a lifetime.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
The figures within do not seek to be seen. They dwell in the strength of being known, in gestures that reveal the beauty of endurance and the courage of tenderness. Through them, love is not spectacle but continuity, an unfolding that survives without need for proof.
Blending visual art and lyrical prose, Composed in Silk invites the reader into a space where perception softens and truth breathes. It asks nothing but attention, offering instead a stillness that restores, and a grace that lingers long after the final page.
The Life’s Theater, Book Two: Composed in Silk. Art and Essays.
Composed in Silk feels like a quiet walk through a gallery where each painting holds a story that unfolds in whispers. The book blends vivid portraits with short essays about stillness, grace, identity, and the long, slow work of becoming. It moves from the discipline of silence to the spark of inner fire and finally to a blooming calm that feels earned. The characters, imagined yet relatable, reveal themselves through color and mood as much as through words. The whole book reads like a meditation stitched together with art.
As I moved through the pages, I felt pulled into the softness and tension living inside these women. The writing struck me with its gentle insistence. I found myself slowing down, feeling the rhythm shift as each section invited me to pay closer attention. The author’s language is simple yet loaded, like he trusts the reader to sit with the quiet parts and actually feel them. It reminded me of moments in life when I’ve had to make sense of my own silence, and the book made that inner work feel less lonely. Sometimes I wanted a more direct explanation, but part of the charm is that nothing is overexplained.
The ideas in the essays caught me by surprise with how personal they felt. The portraits of women such as Deborah, Gabriela, and Goldie lingered with me long after I turned the page. Each figure holds a kind of truth about strength that doesn’t look like the usual loud version. The book treats softness as something powerful, and that hit me in a very real way. The writing about becoming, especially in Act II, made me pause and look at my own life, the ways I’ve tried to grow without losing myself. Some chapters stirred up sadness. Others felt warm and almost healing. I appreciated how the author never tried to tie everything up neatly. The ideas wander a bit, and honestly, that wandering felt human.
I think this book would be perfect for readers who love art that makes them feel instead of analyze. It’s also a good fit for anyone who has moved through quiet seasons in their own life and wants a book that understands that kind of journey. If you enjoy reflective writing, emotional honesty, and portraits that tell stories without shouting, this book will feel like a companion.
Pages: 85 | ASIN : B0G16921FG
LITERARY TITAN 