"Enigma" is an interesting story - I began it in October of 2003 for a college course before moving back to New York from Massachusetts in December the same year. If there ever was a piece that gave me trouble, it was this one. There are about 8 different layers of paint on this piece, as it evolved over a number of months until just recently, when I decided to tackle a few pieces I had scrapped just after the move. First it was to be another nude piece. Then it morphed into a little girl in a dress. Then a camp fire with smoke billowing. Then a seascape. Finally I gave up and accepted what it wanted to ultimately become - abstraction at its purest. I entitled the piece "Enigma" as I find it to be just that - unexplicable, ambiguous and rather puzzling. The piece was created wth a palette knife, just as with my others. Every color imaginable was used as motiffs changed and ideas were scrapped and the painting was worked, re-worked, and worked on some more until it seemed the painting was tired of me screwing with it and screamed at me to get the hell away from it or it threatened to turn into a muddy mess - a prime candidate for perpetual closet dwelling for all eternity. It took on a life of its own essentially, and as I looked at it more and more as its final layer dried, I decided to call a truce. And here it is.