36″x36″, Acrylic and Textured Mediums on Canvas, 2003

I painted this after I’d moved back to Toronto after living in rural Tweed for a year. Longing to be out of the city, I gravitated toward fantasies of living on a tropical island… I had it in my head that “Motel 6″ might be willing to sponsor me as an advertising venture, calling my little boat-hotel “Boatel 6″, with the slogan — which I thought was quite clever — “We’ll leave the lighthouse on for you.”

This painting was also my first use of very heavy mediums and thick paint, and marks the beginning of the current technical phase of painting I’m experimenting with.