I thought about this painting for days before I painted it. I mounted the gorgeous paper that I had imported onto a cradled wooden frame. That alone took days. I was nervous. The frame took me ages to make. I eventually stopped looking at the giant white canvas I’d created and began painting. 

I don’t normally plan my paintings. But this little fish, for some reason, needed a plan. I had it ALL worked out. And, well, you guessed right. It DIDN’T go according to plan at all. Not even slightly. I ended up getting so frustrated that I threw black paint at the canvas. 

My girlfriend arrived home mid-black paint crisis. I stopped to hug her and told her that the fish had died. Joking about it seemed to lighten me up a bit. I closed up my studio space and called it a day. 

A few days later, I went back in and saw an interesting painting of rather lively fish. I kind of liked it. New eyes, new day, fresh brain. Who knows. 

This painting wasn’t what I planned, and it wasn’t painted the way I usually paint, yet there was something about it. I wrote on the canvas all about Koi. The more I wrote, the more he grew on me and came to life, finding a tiny little spot in my heart. So this is Bounce Koi. She represents life, its frustrations and how we bounce back.