Acrylic and oil on canvas, 5 panels
45.5 × 38 cm and 45.5 × 45.5 cm

The Ōoka River winds through Yokohama before reaching Tokyo Bay, carrying fresh and salt water together. This real and imagined landscape brings together creatures that would rarely meet: an octops, a bittern moving quietly through the shallows, poppies unfolding like sea anemones above (or beneath?) the surface. A tiny wren, a crab, an airplane far away.

The painting lingers on forms that invite atención: petals, skin, feathers. Beauty here is temporary. The poppy alludes to intoxication not only as a substance, but as a state of mind a desire to remain inside a moment of pleasure, or to hold on to something beautiful a little longer, even as it begins to disappear.