Title: "Autumn Lament Tapestry"
 
Medium: Acrylic
Image Size: 29" x 20"
 
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When working out the painting's design, I liked the design sense of the branches intertwining, but hadn't thought of them forming a woven tapestry until later when I found this quote, which inspired the painting's title:
"We make every effort to keep things as they are, because human beings, alone, lament transience. Yet no matter how we grieve or protest, there is no way to impede the flow of anything. If we but see things as they are and flow with them, we may find enjoyment in transience. Because human life is transient, all manner of figures are woven into its fabric."
        -Shundo Aoyama, Zen Seeds

The leaf images were formed by pressing real leaves into wet acrylic paint, allowing them to dry in place, then removing the leaves, leaving their impressions. The gradual dark-to-light gradient at the top and bottom was done, not with an airbrush, but with my favorite low-tech tool, spattering from a toothbrush.