In his advice to young artists, Leonardo da Vinci advocated using random patterns (like stains on the wall) as a springboard into creative endeavors. Over the past few years, that's how most of my "palette gremlins" came to life, emerging from accidental paint patterns found in the studio.

For this one, I noticed marks on a piece of palette paper that echoed shapes I'd been seeing out in my yard. As I mentioned in my last post PISCINE DREAMS, everyday I would walk past a tarp that covered a pile of sand. Often it gave me the impression of something fish-like. But sometimes it was more of a head shape and that led me to paint this alien guy.