The paintings on my blog can be interpreted in so many different ways, and all of those ways are right. There is no "right" way to interpret artwork, however, I would like to share my own personal intentions behind these pieces. Each and every painting is of a ghost. Some of the paintings depict literal ghosts in the socially accepted form, appearing to be a human with a sheet over his or her head. Many more of these paintings depict ghosts in a less conventional, metaphorical fashion.Â
 The metaphorical ghosts are all present in everyday life. They are not the spirits of dead people, but can be seen as ghosts in different ways. Polaroids appear to be photos of nothing at first, but after a time colours emerge and it becomes clear that it is a photograph of something. Fish can be gliding gracefully beneath a body of water without any onlooker’s knowledge. They live in a different world than we do and it is impossible to communicate with them. The smoke rising from a burning building could be the ghosts of material possessions lost in a fire. After death, flowers become like a surrogate for the lost loved one. People send flowers as consolation and place flowers on coffins and tombstones, as if the beauty of blossoms could balance out the ugliness of corpses and tears.
 Some of the paintings depict both literal and metaphorical ghosts. For example, there are three pairs of paintings that I refer to as ‘ghost images.’ They are mirror images of each other, created by placing a dry sheet of paper over a wet one. The dry paper absorbed the colour of the wet, but not the details. The second image is like a ghost —a soul without a body. There are also paintings that feature literal ghosts surrounded by metaphorical, such as reflected water, flowers, and snowflakes.
 There are two moods in my paintings: anxious and peaceful. These two moods are representative of different perspectives of death. Some are afraid of death while others come to terms with it more easily.
 Each painting is unique, like a snowflake. Just like a life, each painting can never be recreated, even by using the same processes. Each death is different as well, along with a person’s grieving process. Every painting, both literal and metaphorical, shows a specific cause of death.
 I chose watercolour as a medium because it creates a very vague image. The paintings lack detail just as the afterlife is very vague and lacks detail. Most of the paintings appear to be seen through tears. The brushstrokes are not very controlled or deliberate and often neither is death.
 None of the paintings could ever possibly be recreated to be exactly the same as the originals, just the same as a life could never possibly be replaced. If someone were to take one of my paintings and paint in the ghost-shaped void, it would never seamlessly match the positive space around it; just like when a loved one dies it leaves a void that can never truly be filled.Â
