Convergence Of 2

Convergence of 2

by Lyn Potrykus

There are certain colours that follow us through our lives, shades that echo our inner seasons, our passions, our growth. For me, red has always been that colour, a hue of beginnings, of vitality, of life’s restless heartbeat. In my youth, it was a bold, blazing scarlet, full of energy and promise. As I grew, red deepened, mellowed, evolved, becoming burgundy, a tone steeped in memory, depth, and quiet strength. It is this lifelong relationship with the colour red that became the heartbeat of Convergence of 2, a piece born not just from pigment and texture, but from love, nostalgia, and the enduring rhythm of human connection.

This work began not with a plan, but with a feeling, the familiar pull of colour calling to me. I began, as I often do, with a blank canvas, a silent surface full of potential. I coated it with black gesso, that deep and grounding base that swallows light and reflects the quiet before creation. Over that darkness, I poured my chosen hues, burgundy and white, and let them dance.

Acrylic pouring, for me, is not a technique of control but of surrender. The paints swirl and mingle, forming marbled rivers and organic patterns that no brush could ever command. It is a reminder that creation often emerges most beautifully when we relinquish control, when we allow chance to guide us.

When the pour had dried, it revealed a landscape that felt alive, veins of burgundy breathing through fields of soft white, a tapestry of movement and emotion. It was as though the canvas itself had whispered something back to me, a pulse, a rhythm, a story waiting to surface. And then, as I sifted through my stencils, a small 4×4-inch pattern caught my eye.

It was simple yet profound, two figures entwined in an embrace, fluid and inseparable. That tiny image pulled me backward through time, into the dimly lit spaces of memory, the nights my husband and I would go out dancing, the music slowing near the end of the evening, when the world seemed to narrow to just the two of us. The “smooch dance,” as we fondly called it, that tender final song where words were replaced by the language of closeness and shared rhythm.

I enlarged the stencil by hand, tracing and cutting, giving the small image room to breathe, to grow, to become something monumental. When I laid it over my canvas, it felt right. It felt inevitable. The two figures were not just lovers in a moment of embrace, they were an embodiment of convergence itself, the meeting of two energies, two lifelines, two souls.

The next stage was to give that moment its environment, not a background in the traditional sense, but a surrounding presence, something that could hold their intimacy without confining it. I began to build texture into the negative space, the world around the figures, using mediums that added dimension and tactile richness. Each motion of my palette knife felt like sculpting silence, as if the air between two people could be given form. As the textured space began to take shape, the figures themselves became even more luminous, emerging not as flat silhouettes but as living currents rising from the surface.

Once the texture was dry, I brushed it with a shimmery paint, a luminous finish that catches the light, almost like the afterglow of emotion itself. The shimmer was not just aesthetic, it was symbolic. It represented memory, the radiance of connection that continues to shimmer long after the moment has passed. Every love leaves behind its trace, not in the grand gestures, but in the subtle gleam of remembrance, in the way our hearts reflect what once touched them.

In the finished piece, the couple appears to merge, their forms entwined with flowing lines that recall roots, veins, branches, or perhaps even currents of energy. They are distinct yet inseparable, their boundaries dissolving into one another. It is not just a depiction of physical closeness, but of something deeper, the merging of two individual identities into a shared essence. The surrounding texture both embraces and defines them, symbolising the world that exists around intimacy, the life, the history, the shared and separate experiences that form the terrain of a relationship.

When I step back and look at Convergence of 2, I see not just an image but a memory translated into colour and texture, a reflection of what it means to be joined, to grow together, to become something larger than oneself. The piece speaks to the delicate balance between individuality and unity, between the self and the other. The figures do not lose themselves in the embrace, they find themselves within it.

The Language of Colour
Red, in all its incarnations, has always been a language of emotion for me. It can be fierce, fiery, and alive, but it can also be warm, comforting, and deep. Burgundy, with its maturity and quiet dignity, carries the wisdom of lived experience.

In Convergence of 2, these tones act as emotional signifiers. The burgundy carries the weight of memory and connection, while the touches of white weave through like moments of clarity and tenderness, the light that finds its way through even the deepest shades.

The black gesso beneath everything serves as a grounding force, a metaphor for the unseen foundation that relationships rest upon. Love, like painting, often requires darkness as its base, not in a negative sense, but as a depth that allows the lighter colours to truly shine. Just as contrast brings out brilliance in art, contrast in emotion, joy and sorrow, presence and absence, gives depth to connection.

The Process as Metaphor
There is something profoundly poetic in the process of acrylic pouring itself. The way colours blend unpredictably mirrors the way human relationships evolve, a dance of control and release, intention and spontaneity. Each pour is unique, unrepeatable, and that impermanence is part of its beauty. As the paints mix, they create organic patterns that feel alive, much like the ways in which two people intertwine their lives over time, forming a shared story that neither could create alone.

Cutting out the stencil by hand became an act of devotion, slow, careful, intimate. It required patience and precision, echoing the care that sustains love. The act of tracing and enlarging that small image until it filled the canvas was a metaphor for how small moments, a dance, a glance, a shared song, can grow into something monumental in the landscape of our lives.

The texture, that shimmering, tactile layer surrounding the figures, became a representation of everything that exists outside the moment of embrace, time, memory, the world beyond love that nonetheless shapes it. Texture, by its nature, invites touch, and in this piece, it symbolises both the tactile and the emotional textures of connection. It is rough in places, smooth in others, just as relationships are, a living surface that holds both harmony and tension.

Symbolism and Emotion
At its heart, Convergence of 2 is a visual meditation on unity. The entwined figures suggest not just lovers, but any two energies meeting and merging, masculine and feminine, past and present, self and other, earth and spirit. Their merging lines evoke roots and branches, emphasising growth and interconnectedness. It suggests that love is not a static state, but a living organism, something that evolves, deepens, and anchors us even as it reaches outward.

The heart-shaped negative space between them is subtle yet central, a natural emergence rather than an imposed symbol. It is as though love itself forms in the space between, reminding us that connection often exists most powerfully in the intangible, the unseen bond, the silent understanding.
The shimmer of the outer texture shifts with light, changing its appearance depending on the viewer’s angle. This interplay of light and perspective reflects the way relationships are experienced, different from each vantage point, changing with time and emotion. What glimmers in one moment may recede in another, yet the essence remains. The surface lives, much like memory does, constantly shifting but never fading.

A Personal Reflection
When I look at Convergence of 2, I see more than an image of a couple. I see the echo of dances shared long ago, the laughter and warmth of evenings that felt infinite, the tenderness of holding someone close when the music slows and the rest of the world disappears.

I see the quiet comfort that comes with years shared, how love transforms from the bright flame of youth into a steady ember, glowing with history and grace.

The piece carries the essence of my relationship with my husband, a love that has evolved alongside the changing shades of red in my palette. It is both a celebration and a reflection, a reminder that connection, once formed, never truly fades. It transforms, just as colours do, deepening with time and experience.

Every brushstroke, every textured ridge, every shimmer of light across the surface is a fragment of that story, a physical manifestation of emotion. It speaks of love not as a perfect or static thing, but as a living, breathing force that requires both surrender and strength. It is about convergence, the meeting of two paths, two lives, and the creation of something that neither could have become alone.

The Universal in the Personal
Though deeply personal, Convergence of 2 speaks a universal language. We all know what it is to connect, to find another whose presence alters our rhythm. The figures in this piece could be anyone, their embrace could belong to any pair of souls who have found solace in one another. In their abstraction, they invite viewers to project their own experiences, to see their own stories of love, loss, and reunion reflected in the flowing lines and colours.

That is the beauty of art born from emotion, it transcends the individual. My story becomes a mirror for others. A couple viewing this piece might recall their first dance. Someone who has lost a loved one might see in it the lingering embrace of memory. Someone yearning for connection might feel the quiet promise that such convergence is possible.
The universality of the embrace allows each viewer to enter the work through their own emotional doorway. It becomes a shared space, much like love itself.

Light, Time, and Transformation
The shimmer overlay, responsive to light, ensures that the painting is never static. As the day changes, so does its face. Morning light reveals softness, evening light deepens its burgundy tones, accentuating the intimacy of the figures. This transformation through light mirrors the passage of time, how relationships, too, shift and reveal different layers depending on the angle from which we view them.
In that sense, Convergence of 2 is a living piece. It interacts with its environment, with its viewers, and with time itself. It changes, just as love does, not diminishing, but transforming.

The Embrace as a Motif
An embrace is one of the oldest gestures in human existence, primal, comforting, wordless. It is both protection and surrender, both strength and vulnerability. In the context of this work, the embrace becomes a metaphor for the dualities that define love, holding and letting go, merging and maintaining self-hood, presence and absence. The figures seem to dissolve into one another, yet remain distinct. It is a delicate equilibrium, a visual poem about the spaces we inhabit together and the spaces we keep within.

The surrounding texture can be seen as the world that tries to intrude, the noise, the chaos, the constant hum of existence, yet within it, the figures remain still, centred, united. They are a sanctuary within the storm. This contrast, between the turbulent surface and the calm centre, underscores the painting’s emotional power.

The Power of Handcrafted Detail
Though the original image came from a small stencil, its enlargement and hand-cut execution infused it with personal energy.

There is something intimate about cutting by hand, it’s an act of touch, of physical engagement with the form. Each curve of the line carries the trace of the artist’s hand, the pulse of creation. The manual labour of shaping and tracing echoes the human touch that defines love, imperfect, tender, real.

By drawing around the cutout on the canvas and filling the negative space with texture, the figures were not “painted” in the traditional sense, they were revealed. This reversal, where presence is defined by absence, adds another layer of meaning. Love, too, is often defined not by what we see, but by what we feel, not by what is spoken, but by what is silently understood.

Conclusion, A Visual Testament to Connection
Convergence of 2 is, at its essence, a testament to unity, to the moment where two lives, two energies, two stories intertwine. It celebrates the beauty of connection while honouring the individuality that makes such union possible. It acknowledges that love, like art, is both creation and surrender, a dance between the known and the unpredictable, between structure and flow.

Through colour, texture, and form, this piece captures what words often fail to express, that mysterious space between two hearts where time slows, where everything else dissolves, and where being together feels like coming home.

In creating it, I was reminded that art, like love, is an act of faith. We begin with a blank canvas, with uncertainty, with hope. We pour ourselves into it, trusting that something beautiful will emerge from the chaos. And when it does, we recognise ourselves within it, not as separate beings, but as part of something larger, something luminous, something eternal.

Convergence of 2 is not just a painting of two figures. It is a portrait of connection, of memory, of the shimmering threads that bind us to one another. It is, quite simply, a love story told in colour.

You can commission a custom art piece in your choice of colour (subject to availability), adding a personal touch that reflects your unique story and experiences. Each artwork is carefully crafted, ensuring that no two are ever the same, just like the moments they capture. This process not only creates a meaningful connection between the artist and the patron but also highlights the individuality of each person’s journey through time.

Commissions Form The more information you provide, the better we can tailor the piece to your vision. Please note that commissions typically take between 2 to 6 weeks to complete.

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