EEI – The Painting I Couldn’t Let Go Of (Until Now)

There are some paintings that demand to stay with you a little longer. For me, that painting was Elevated, Expansive, and Irritable—or simply EEI, as my wife and I have called it for years.

This piece is massive: 6 feet tall by 5 feet wide.

A beast in size and presence, it’s built with dense layers of poured and scraped acrylic, sealed in thick, glossy coats of epoxy resin.

It’s physically heavy—and emotionally weighty, too.

My signature black line work cuts through the surface, outlining strokes and movement in a way that gives the whole piece an incredible sense of depth. It’s bold, intense, and—at times—almost overwhelming.

EEI has been with me through years of shows across Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Louisville. It has absorbed more than just attention from gallery walls—it has absorbed moments in my own life. The title—Elevated, Expansive, and Irritable—is a reference to the clinical terminology often used to describe mood states associated with mania or hypomania, key elements of bipolar disorder. Those words stuck with me.

They captured something I felt—something chaotic, something luminous, something too much.

Despite its visual complexity and layered gloss, there’s nothing polished about the emotion behind it.

It’s honest, unpredictable, and at times, a little uncomfortable—like the experiences it was named after.

For years, I couldn’t part with it. It wasn’t just art; it was personal.

But recently, it sold. Letting it go felt like closing a chapter I didn’t know was still open. I’m grateful it’s going to someone who connected with it the same way I did—deeply.

This one will always stand out in my mind. It’s the kind of painting that doesn’t just hang—it looms, it lives. And now it gets to live somewhere new.