Gathering

Color pencil and ballpoint pen on smooth bristol board, 9" x 12", Signed lower center — Rene Juan de la Cruz, 02/26

Love arrives first. A large pink heart sits at the top of the composition, presiding over everything below it with quiet authority. Above it, a small red Saturn-orbit being floats freely, crowned, watching over the whole scene. This is the only piece in the collection that opens with the heart. Everything else follows from that.

The large central form sweeps across the middle of the page, a generous arching presence in pink and cream, eyes looking back with warmth, a halo floating above it. Not a figure exactly, not a structure exactly. A feeling that took form. An embrace that became a being.

Around it the gathering assembles. Upper left, a crowned figure with a halo and an orbit wrapping around it, elevation and spirituality fused into one mark. The full cast arrives in close, intimate proximity, the bold pink cat-like figure in the lower left with eyes wide and full teeth smiling, blue arched tunnel forms opening into space, a large white face with eyes looking directly and openly out, a lone watching eye near the bottom center that sees everything without judgment. Red beings with signature aerodynamic legs and feet move through the lower half. Smaller beings hold quiet conversation in the pink and magenta field on the right. The edges blaze yellow and green.

The state of mind was colorful yet balanced. Nothing fighting for dominance. The full palette present and at peace with itself. Every being arrived, everyone accounted for, the heart at the top making sure nobody was left out.

This is the warmest piece in the collection. The one where the subconscious didn't erupt or transmit or converge or dream, it simply gathered everyone it loved into one place and held them there.