Five Years, One Table, and the Energy of 300 Paintings: A Tribute to Time, Art, and a World of Perpetual Motion
Image of Framed “Five Year Investment of Energy”.
In February of 2021, I started a creative hobby with my first blank canvas, cheap brushes and a small variety pack of acrylic paints. With that first painting, I established the process of standing over a card table draped in black plastic – a surface that would become the silent witness to my evolution from hobbyist to artist. I didn’t know then that this setup, so simple and initially temporary, would become the foundation of over 300 paintings. And now, nearing the end of 2025, that same black plastic—splattered, stained, and marked with the residue of every brushstroke, every burst of color, every moment of self-doubt and creative triumph—has been framed as its own work of art: Five Year Investment of Energy.
This piece is more than a personal relic. It’s a time capsule. A tactile diary. A layered map of my creative journey. Each drip and smear is a timestamp, a fingerprint of a moment when I chose to show up and create. And while I was immersed in my own world of color and possibility, the world outside was changing—sometimes violently, sometimes beautifully, always relentlessly.
Framed “Five Year Investment of Energy” in a Contemporary Setting
The World That Shifted Beneath While I Stood
In those five years, history unfolded in ways that have reshaped our collective consciousness. Just weeks before I began painting, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars, reigniting fascination with the cosmos and reminding us of humanity’s boundless curiosity. In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II passed away, ending a 70-year reign and marking the end of an era for millions across the globe.
The COVID-19 pandemic lingered into 2023, reshaping how we connect, work, and live. We saw the rise of remote everything — remote work, remote therapy, remote exhibitions. Art, too, adapted. Virtual galleries flourished, and creative people found new ways to reach audiences across screens.
In 2024, the world watched artificial intelligence leap forward, transforming industries and sparking debates about creativity, ethics, and the future of human expression. Unfortunately, at the same time, climate disasters have intensified, with wildfires and floods reminding us of our fragile relationship with nature.
But amid the chaos, I continued to find beauty in creating through the combination of inspirations such as my life, the life of others, music and books. Music has always been a primary driver. A complex and eclectic soundtrack to my creative hours, the background noise to my brushwork.
“Five Year Investment of Energy”
The Table That Captured My Spirit
That black plastic sheet—now framed and titled Five Year Investment of Energy—is not just a surface. It’s a collaborator. It absorbed the overflow of my energy, the excess of my experimentation. It caught the paint that missed the canvas, and the colors that didn’t make the cut.
It holds the ghosts of paintings sold, gifted, painted over, or still waiting to be seen. It has been present for every single one of those 300+ creations. And now, it stands alone as a piece of art—an abstract of abstracts, my personal monument to persistence and an unexpected five years of life.
Five Year Investment of Energy is my answer to the question: “What did you do with your time?” I invested it. I poured it into color and form. I let it stain my hands and my table. And now, I offer it back to the world—not as a polished masterpiece, but as a raw, honest accumulation of effort.
This piece is for every artist who wonders if their work matters. It does. Even the paint that misses the canvas tells a story.