A Quiet Spell was made during a period marked by an increasing awareness of what I could not control and a desire to meet that uncertainty with more honesty. The paintings came out of a year of change, but also of close attention—to people, places, memories, and the parts of experience that become stranger the longer they are carried.

The title refers both to magic and to something more literal: a spell as a measure of time. It suggests a pause, a stretch of days lived attentively, where change can be quiet enough to be mistaken for stillness. Looking back, the paintings feel less like an explanation of that year than a record of learning how to be present for it.