prickly pear

On my first visit to Texas in March of 2012, on my first day in the city, I tasted my first prickly pear margarita.  Steven brought me to the Riverwalk and we sat outside at a restaurant on the water.  Ducks waddled around the table, waiting for chips to fall.  Our waiter made fresh guacamole at our table and brought us magenta colored drinks called prickly pear margaritas.  They matched the color of the sweater I was wearing.  It's been almost two years and the memory of that first day is still vivid, though the sweater has faded.  I remember being concerned about looking like a tourist...I had no idea that in four months the city would become my new home.  For a year we shared an apartment that overlooked a field with this cactus growing amidst a bunch of trees.  The plant I once considered exotic is now a part of my everyday surroundings, and I love it.  There is a lot of personal symbolism wrapped up in this work, content I've been developing since my residency in 2010.  The cacti in my painting are all filled in green, and partially glazed with neon paint.  Today I began to add in more detail and shadows.  It was cold and overcast today, making the saturated colors I was painting seem all the more intense.