Lifted by Each Other

24" round Mixed media & oil paint on handmade 3D canvas by Ellis Hollering 

Inspired by a moment in Costa Rica, where I saw these toucans up close for the first time, this piece holds onto a quiet sense of closeness and support. Not because they are moving, but because of how they are together. There is a quiet kind of strength in that closeness. No need to prove anything. Just the sense that, when the moment comes, they will not face it alone. Of having someone beside you. Someone who steadies you without holding you back. Someone who makes the leap feel possible. Not by leading. Not by pushing. But simply by being there. The canvas itself is hand shaped into a round, three dimensional form, a half sphere that draws you in from every angle, as if the jungle is already reaching out before you even stand in front of it.