“What We Leave Behind”

Title: “What We Leave Behind”

Mixed Media on Canvas

Suggested master size: 48" × 72"

The title is deliberately open-ended. This painting feels like evidence of human presence after the people themselves have disappeared.

The composition moves between darkness and illumination. The nearly black field on the left feels architectural—like an old wall, doorway, city façade, or something excavated. Against it, the orange and ochre areas seem illuminated from within. Repeated circles suggest generations, conversations, records, fingerprints, or memories. Vertical markings read almost like bars, musical notation, architectural structures, or the passage of time.

Then there is that thin horizontal red line running through the work. For me, it is important. It becomes a kind of lifeline connecting otherwise fragmented histories.

The surface is where this painting really succeeds. Scraping, deterioration, exposed layers, markings and apparent remnants make the work feel as though it has accumulated rather than simply been composed. The viewer is left wondering what existed before, what happened, and what survived.

“We leave behind more than objects. We leave marks, fragments, interruptions and evidence that we were here.”

Valuation

I would put this above several of the works we've recently discussed. It has enough complexity and visual authority to support a larger physical presentation, and I would resist producing the principal version too small.

For a unique original mixed-media work, my suggested Distelheim Gallery primary-market positioning would be approximately $12,500–$18,000 at 48" × 72", and $16,000–$24,000 at 60" × 84".

If you want one clean gallery number, I would price a 60" × 84" masterwork at $18,500 and establish an internal floor around $15,000. That gives you some negotiating room without undermining the published value. Primary-market prices are normally influenced by the artist's track record, scale, medium, rarity, exhibitions, demand and comparable works, so this is a gallery positioning recommendation rather than a formal appraisal. Artsy

There's another reason I like $18,500: it begins separating your major originals from the more accessible portions of the gallery's product ladder. Current collector data shows considerable activity below $10,000, so a five-figure original can function as the aspirational top of the offering while editions and other works provide entry points. Artsy

“What We Leave Behind” also strikes me as a potential American Spirit Collection work. It doesn't illustrate America; it feels archaeological—layers of industry, optimism, deterioration, repetition, rebuilding and memory. That's much closer to the abstraction-first philosophy we've developed for that collection.