This canvas came to me as a literal castaway—a large, mass-produced piece of art I found abandoned on the side of the road, waiting for a new home. As I took it into my studio, I knew its transformation would be deeply tied to my own. The initial act of painting over its surface became a parallel process of inner housekeeping, a conscious mission to begin the work of dejunking my soul.

Encountering this stark symbol of masculine energy felt like a call to action—an invitation to engage with it, to reclaim it from its sterile origins, and to build it a world with a soul. The object itself presented a fascinating challenge. The geometric buck was already there—a linear, almost cold form on an untreated black canvas that seemed to absorb light and color, as if the paint was vanishing into a void….