Too Beautiful to Spill: Wonder Contained and Overflowing

Exhibited at the Columbia Art League’s “Wonder” Juried Show

July 29 – September 4, 2025

Reception: August 8, 6–8 PM | 207 South 9th Street, Columbia, MO

There are moments when an idea not only lands, it roots, tangles, and refuses to let go. Too Beautiful to Spill is one of those moments for me.

This painting was born out of tension: the tension between containment and chaos, control and curiosity, self and spectacle. It belongs to my ongoing Fragmented Series, which explores emotional memory, identity, and the often-invisible lines that separate us from others, and even from ourselves.

Historically, the figures in this series have been pure silhouette: bold, clean outlines filled with vibrancy or left as negative space. But with Too Beautiful to Spill, I began experimenting with anatomical hints, soft shading around limbs, subtle gradients within form, not to render realism, but to hint at presence, to suggest that these figures carry weight, dimension, and stories untold.

The central figure of the girl is filled with spirals and strokes of chaotic color, a reflection of the internal world of emotion, memory, and imagination. Cradled in her arms is a glass jar, painted with a carnival scene, bright and miniature, fragile yet overflowing with nostalgia. This jar represents wonder in a pure, almost sacred form: a place where joy and awe are preserved. It is not simply that the girl protects the wonder inside the jar; she is part of it, shaped by it, consumed by it. Her body becomes a vessel, an echo of the jar, containing both the chaos of color and the quiet ache of remembering.

This piece is not about childhood per se, but rather the moment when wonder still lives close to the surface, before it calcifies under the weight of adulthood. It asks: What do we choose to preserve? What spills out when we try to hold too tightly?

Process

Painting Too Beautiful to Spill required me to let go of some of my own habits. I approached the composition intuitively, layering acrylics, pulling vibrant hues into abstract forms, then carving out figures using opaque whites and strategic erasures. The figures pressing in around her are ghostlike, some fading in, others watching, touching, departing. These could be memories. They could be others. They could be future selves. Their ambiguity is deliberate.

The jar, though detailed, is intentionally painterly. I wanted it to feel like it belongs within the chaos, not pasted atop it. The carnival elements (ferris wheel, striped tent, and hints of lights and flags) are symbols of temporary joy: colorful, fleeting, and fragile when bottled.

Exhibition Context

The Columbia Art League’s juried exhibition Wonder invited artists to reflect on moments that “left us gobsmacked, stopped dead in our tracks.” While many entries may interpret the theme through the grandeur of nature or monumental awe, Too Beautiful to Spill anchors wonder in something smaller and more personal: the deeply emotional memory of joy worth preserving, even as it threatens to spill over.

Where to View or Purchase

Too Beautiful to Spill is on display at the Columbia Art League from July 29 to September 4, 2025. Visitors can view the piece in person at the gallery or explore purchasing options online or directly at the reception on August 8 from 6–8 PM.

PURCHASE HERE

Final Reflection

I often return to one question in my work: How do we carry our stories, visibly, invisibly, or somewhere in between? Too Beautiful to Spill doesn’t answer the question. But it sits with it. It cradles it carefully. And maybe that’s enough.