This is the first in my new Forest Guardian series. As with many of my anthropomorphic paintings, it also doubles as a self-portrait into my own life’s journey. I live in an area where sloths abound, and have always imagined them as wise and conscientious in their slow, deliberate ways. Not to mention perpetually happy with their constant smiling. So I decided to use him as a symbol for my own journey through a recent time where I found myself feeling somewhat lost, grieving and uninspired. The ‘medicine’ that I used to help me through it was first of all a returning to my own art after almost 2 years of focusing on only commissioned works. I love creating them, but I was really missing doing works that were all me. This painting is the first since starting again. The other tool I turned to was a regimen of psilocybin microdosing – hence the mushroom cap. The emotional and mental shifts have been profound and sustained. Between these two things I’ve come away with greater level of wisdom, peace and renewed purpose. I feel as if I’ve graduated to a new level in my life. And, it is also a calling to anyone out there to do whatever it takes to move your own life into the next phase of higher learning and living.