Abstract elements (colours, shapes, patterns, marks) are aligned to create a whole that contains them yet yields more than the sum of its parts. This painting began as a rather wild play of colourful brushstrokes (now the foreground). Then came a playful mix of spontaneous and deliberate mark-making, shapes and patterns with affinities as well as contrasts with one another. I let the shapes tell me where they wanted to be and, in this way, the focal object emerged rather emphatically and suggested a seated figure. I envisioned it holding a bowl and set in a space implying open land and sky. For me, this atypically "composed" figure holds an offering bowl to whatever guides us in our striving.