Featured in MCA Ocala's Brick Gallery Midsummer Dreams Exhibit! As the summer season heats up I am ensconced in my lanai studio with its large windows, a view of the rising sun, and (thankfully) three ceiling fans. It’s the place where I ponder the universe and my place in it. Abstract painting is my current obsession. I simultaneously lay down paint while asking the questions, Who am I? Why am I here? What have I contributed? and “Will someone please bring me a cold Diet Coke?” In “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” my goal was to create a painting whose theme isn’t obvious at first glance. It’s a cross-section of large fields of vibrant color on which I superimposed seemingly random shapes. Does the viewer see a large bug balancing on the edge of a floral landscape and reaching a stem for support? Or perhaps a figure in an elaborate cape who, for whatever reason, carries a blue fish? Or maybe an unfortunate being that is electrocuted by a lightning bolt? To some, abstract art is nonsense. To others, it opens a space where imagination takes over and thrives…even in Florida’s summer heat.