Legacy of Love is a meditation on memory, inheritance, and the mark we choose to leave upon the world.

The painting emerged from the lush presence of the Panamanian rainforest surrounding the chapel where I work. Emerald and deep forest greens gather and overlap like accumulated memories. Luminous gold catches the light between them, while fleeting passages of sky blue appear through the canopy—small openings toward something beyond ourselves.

Every layer holds the memory of the one beneath it. Marks disappear and re-emerge. Colors are veiled but never entirely lost. Traces of earlier gestures remain embedded within the finished work.

It made me think about legacy.

We often associate legacy with achievement—what we built, owned, created or accomplished. But perhaps our deepest legacy is much quieter.

It is the way we made another person feel.
The kindness we offered when none was required.
The beauty we created rather than destroyed.
The peace we carried into a troubled space.
The love we gave freely.

And there is another legacy we are creating together: the planet we leave behind.

The rainforest has become an extraordinary teacher in my work. Beneath its canopy, everything is interconnected. Old growth nourishes new growth. Fallen leaves become soil. Light finds openings. Life continually gives itself back to life.

Legacy of Love asks what might happen if we approached our own lives with that same understanding.

What are we leaving behind?

Not simply for those who know and remember us, but for people we will never meet—for the children who will inherit our forests, oceans, gardens, cities and skies.

Painting in the chapel has made me increasingly aware that creating beauty can itself be a form of reverence. A painting cannot repair the world, but it can remind us of what is worth protecting. It can invite us to pause, to notice, to care.

Leonardo da Vinci wrote that “the painter has the universe in his mind and hands.” Those words have become a quiet companion in my practice. They remind me that what we hold in our minds and hands matters. We are always creating something through the choices we make.

Perhaps legacy is simply love made visible through our actions.

A tree protected.
A kindness offered.
A beautiful thing created.
A wound not passed forward.
A moment of peace.
A hand extended.
A life lived with care.

I hope Legacy of Love becomes a reminder that none of us passes through this world without leaving a mark.

May ours be one of beauty.
May ours be one of peace.
May ours be one of kindness.
And above all, may ours be a legacy of love.