Where Curiosity Leads

There’s something strange about creating a story when you don’t know how it ends.

That is exactly what I wanted when I started painting Gerald the Curious Fox.

I didn’t want to sit down and write his entire journey, decide what every painting would look like, and then simply execute the plan. Gerald was supposed to be curious. His story needed to feel curious, too.

So I painted the beginning and handed part of the decision over to you.

Gerald stood in the forest with two possibilities in front of him: follow the light or follow the butterfly.

You chose the butterfly.

And suddenly I had a new canvas to figure out.

The Story Is Becoming Bigger Than the Fox

On the surface, Gerald is a curious little fox wandering through beautiful places and making choices along the way.

But I’ve realized that isn’t really what I’m painting.

I’m painting the moments when we don’t know what comes next.

The fork in the road.

The small signs we almost overlook.

The decision to follow something simply because it pulls at us.

Sometimes that might be logic. Sometimes curiosity. Sometimes instinct. Sometimes joy. Sometimes a quiet little nudge we can’t explain at all.

The butterfly Gerald followed became a symbol of that kind of guidance for me — transformation, creativity, joy and the willingness to move toward something before knowing exactly where it will lead.

And that brought him somewhere completely unexpected.

A forgotten room.

Another mystery.

Another choice.

Another painting.

And Then Gerald Found a Home

Before I had even finished telling his story, the first Gerald painting found its collector.

I love that.

There is something especially meaningful about an original painting leaving the studio while the world it belongs to is still unfolding.

The collector isn’t simply taking home an image of a fox.

She owns the beginning.

The first decision.

The moment Gerald stood there wondering what to do next.

That is one of the things I love most about collecting original art. The object itself matters, of course — the paint, the texture, the marks made by the artist’s hand.

But there is also the story attached to it.

Where the artist was.

What the work meant.

What happened because it existed.

And eventually, the collector becomes part of that history too.

Maybe We’re All a Little Like Gerald

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much of life happens before we feel prepared for it.

We want the map.

We want reassurance.

We want to know that the path we choose will lead somewhere worthwhile.

Most of the time, we don’t get that.

We get one decision.

Then another.

And occasionally, if we’re paying attention, we get a butterfly.

Gerald’s story is becoming a series about those choices: how we seek answers, how we move through uncertainty, when we rely on ourselves, when we accept help, how we handle obstacles, and what we discover along the way.

There will still be forests and forgotten rooms and keys and rivers and whatever else Gerald manages to wander into.

But underneath all of it will be something very human.

The search for our way forward.

Maybe the point isn’t always knowing where the path leads.

Maybe sometimes the important part is noticing what makes you curious enough to take the next step.

Gerald has taken his.

And Chapter Two is already unfolding on my easel.

Follow Gerald’s story as it develops, see each original painting, and help decide where he goes next.