My folks, Kathryn and Lewis Shepherd, asked me to create this mural for their glorious new penthouse apartment overlooking the Potomac (and especially the Jefferson Memorial) in Early 2023. They wanted something that referenced early modernist visions such as those of the Italian Futurists, Russian Constructivists, and Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (German Expressionist) while evoking something of the surrounding panoramas of Washington DC and its immediate architecture.

I chose to do the painting entirely in metallic pigments. It's a fascinating effect since the different mica powder pigments change hue and reflectivity subtly depending on the position from which they are viewed. That doesn't come across so clearly in these photos, but I like art that has to be appreciated in person - that a photo cannot do justice to - because I think the real experience of art should be a direct experience.
In the photos below you can see the evolution of the project from quick sketch to finished project. I chose to do this as a perspective study so that it would conform to the horizon line that can be beheld throughout the large panoramic views from the large windows of the penthouse. The mural is, in effect, one more window, but one that looks out onto a fantastic world.

For no particular reason, I chose to add a number of large bowls to the composition. There are six in total counting the dome high on the right (an overturned bowl). This called to my mind the Tarot card, "Six of Cups", which, those of you who know the cards, will recognize as one of the more positive cards of the Minor Arcana. I think the card means, "natural kindness", - a kindness that is spontaneous and without artifice, like that of children or animals. I didn't have a title for the painting, but since I couldn't think of anything else, I named it - informally - "Six of Cups". One friend commented that it reminds her of Nepal. I guess they do look like singing bowls, don't they? So the name has stuck, "Six of Cups".