A 2026 large-scale painting series:“Peace and Rumors of Peace”
This series is inspired by Toni Morrison’s essay “The Future of Time”, in which she asks that we break up with our cultural obsession with the end of the world and begin imagining the future. Morrison writes, “Isn’t it reasonable to assume that the far distant future may not be the disaster movie we have come to love, but a reconfiguration of what we are here for? To lessen suffering, to tell the truth, raise the bar?”
The series title is an inversion of the verse “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet”.
We have to break up with the “disaster movie” that outsells everything else in politics, religion, and entertainment and create new stories and myths. Morrison argues imagining a different future is the radical first step in creating it. This series is my personal installment in that effort.Click any image for detailed photos and pricing
"Peace and Rumors of Peace", 8 x 3.5 feet. Acrylic on heavyweight paper. 2026. Word soars across the waters.
One Before the Other", 6.5 × 3 feet. Acrylic painting on heavyweight paper. 2026. About prioritizing one people over another.
"Peace and Rumors of Peace", 8 x 3.5 feet. Acrylic on heavyweight paper. 2026. Soaring white and a streak of evergreen, the color of life and eternity.
"Peace and Rumors of Peace", 8 x 3.5 feet. Acrylic on heavyweight paper. 2026.
"Peace and Rumors of Peace", 7 x 3 feet. Acrylic on heavyweight paper. 2026. Word soars across the wavelengths.
"They will receive garlands instead of ashes, And all the world shall acknowledge that they are People", 8 x 3.5 feet. Acrylic on heavyweight paper. 2026.
"As Below, So Above", 8 × 3.5 feet. Acrylic painting on heavyweight paper. 2026. The future is dictated by beliefs made in our own image.
"They will receive garlands instead of ashes, And all the world shall acknowledge that they are People", 7 x 3.5 feet. Acrylic on heavyweight paper. 2026.
Detail
"Break Up With Armageddon", 3 × 3.5 feet. Acrylic painting on heavyweight paper. 2026. In Toni Morrison’s essay “The Future of Time”, she asks that we break up with our cultural obsession with the end of the world and begin imagining the future. Morrison says, “isn’t it reasonable to assume that the far distant future may not be the disaster movie we have come to love, but a reconfiguration of what we are here for? To lessen suffering, to tell the truth, raise the bar?” It is also inspired by Quaker meetings I attended and their emphasis on being activists for peace now, and their mission to end war now, not waiting for the end of the world first. How radical. We have to break up with the “disaster movie” that outsells everything else in politics, religion, and entertainment. We have to imagine new stories to create them. Imagination is the first step in a radically different future. Change your expectations.
"2,000 Years From Now", 8 × 3.5 feet. Acrylic painting on heavyweight paper. 2026. Toni Morrison’s essay “The Future of Time” says that, without dismissing existential issues, we must break up with The End of The World and imagine the future. Her direct words: “We are tentative about articulating a long earthly future; we are cautioned against the luxury of its meditation as a harmful deferral and displacement of contemporary issues.” “Oddly enough it is in the modern West -where advance, progress, and change have been signatory features -where confidence in an enduring future is at its slightest.” “No wonder our imagination stumbles beyond 2030.” “To weigh the future of future requires some powerfully visionary thinking about how the life of the mind can operate in a moral context increasingly dangerous to its health. It will require thinking about the generations to come as life forms at least as important as cathedral-like forests and glistening seals. It will require thinking about generations to come as more than a century or so of one’s own family line, group stability, gender, sex, race, religion. Thinking about how we might respond if certain that our own line would last two thousand, twelve thousand more earthly years.” “It will require thinking about the quality of human life, not just its length. The quality of intelligent life, not just its strategizing abilities. The obligations of moral life, not just its ad hoc capacity for pity.” A few years ago I took Morrison’s challenge to visualize my line 2,000 years from now. I imagined a girl in a meadow, at peace, with full bodily autonomy, and was surprised at the emotion it brought. For all of the opportunity and comfort of my own life compared to previous generations, I had never allowed myself to imagine this girl. She was too much to hope for. Existential threats are imminent, but how many generations have thought they were the last? Maybe it is honest but human to think that the world will end when I do. I am choosing risk & hope in a better future over the comfort and control of expecting the worst. This piece is the meadow 2,000 years from now where I hope all of our progeny can sit, knowing peace.
"Pale Blue Dot", 3 × 3.5 feet. Acrylic painting on heavyweight paper. 2026. An abstract take on NASA’s famed photo of Earth from the edge of the solar system. The photograph was proposed by astronomer Carl Sagan, a philosophical reminder of our planet's fragility and our shared responsibility to care for it. Can you spot the pale blue dot?
"New Life", 6 × 3.5 feet, Acrylic painting on heavyweight paper. 2026. Hope, regeneration, and peace. New life flows on. Light green represents young life, dark green represents mature life, blue is life-giving water, and white is word of peace spreading.