This completed series is called Shattered. The series explores the tension between structure and emotion through bold, angular forms layered over richly textured, intricate backgrounds. The works evoke shards of broken glass, sharp, fragmented, and disordered, reflecting both rupture and resilience. Each painting juxtaposes precise geometric shapes with expressive, chaotic underlayers to capture the complexity of human feeling. The angular forms become a visual language, sharp, deliberate, and controlled, while the layered textures pulse with memory, mood, and movement.
This series reflects an ongoing inquiry: how do we impose order on emotional chaos? By setting the rigidity of geometry against the jagged unpredictability of broken glass, the work reveals how structure and emotion can coexist, sometimes clashing, sometimes holding each other in fragile balance. Whether seen as maps of inner experience or abstract expressions of psychological states, The Geometry Series invites viewers to stand in that in-between space: the fracture, the tension, and the search for clarity within ambiguity. For inquiries please contact mcalpinesofniagara@gmail.com
Private Commission - This piece was born out of a time when I had completely shattered, before I found sobriety. At rock bottom, everything felt like broken glass: sharp, fragmented, and impossible to piece back together. Yet within that breaking came the chance to rebuild, to discover that even in the shards there is reflection, light, and unexpected beauty.
The muted pinks and reds speak to the rawness of pain and struggle, the wounds left open when everything falls apart. The cooler greens and blues thread through as a quiet hope, a reminder that healing is possible. And the warm glow rising from the center holds the possibility of self-discovery, the strength that comes only after breaking.
Glass at the Bottom is not just about loss—it’s about survival. It’s about finding yourself in the fragments, and realizing that even at the lowest point, beauty can emerge from the broken.
Stretched Canvas 30” x 40”
SOLD - This piece captures the quiet courage it takes to ask for help when you feel broken. The fractured glass-like shapes represent the moments when life splinters when strength falters and the self feels scattered. Yet through these sharp fragments, light begins to seep in.
Soft layers of muted pinks and warm rust tones evoke vulnerability and pain, while hints of turquoise emerge as symbols of hope and renewal. The interplay of dark and light areas mirrors the journey from isolation to connection the moment when reaching out becomes an act of healing.
Into the Light is both a confession and a release, a visual reminder that even in our most shattered states, there is beauty in transparency, and strength in being seen.
Stretched Canvas 18” x 24”
There was a period in my life when silence felt unbearable. It wasn’t peaceful, it was a weight pressing down, filled with everything I didn’t have the strength to say. Fragments of Silence came from that time. Painting became a language for what I couldn’t speak, a way to piece together the emotions I’d kept buried beneath addiction, fear, and shame. Each fractured mark represents the small attempts to make sense of myself, to find coherence in the aftermath of chaos. This piece is about learning to sit with silence and discovering that it can eventually hold healing instead of emptiness.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
Light is often seen as hopeful, but when you’ve lived in darkness, even light can feel like something you have to carry. The Weight of Light was born from the exhaustion of trying to stay positive while struggling inside. Recovery taught me that hope doesn’t always arrive like a sunrise; sometimes it flickers faintly, asking to be protected rather than celebrated. This painting is about that fragile relationship with hope, the way it feels both heavy and necessary. Creating it helped me understand that light isn’t something you earn; it’s something you learn to hold, one day at a time.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
I’ve spent much of my life trying to look okay, smiling, working, pretending that everything was fine. But beneath that surface, there was always a storm. Echoes Beneath the Colour reflects that duality: the outer world that looks composed, and the inner world filled with emotion, chaos, and unspoken truths. When I was struggling with depression and addiction, I learned how easy it is to hide behind a version of yourself that the world will accept. This painting became an act of honesty, a visual confession that what lies beneath is as real, and as worthy, as what people see.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
There are feelings we never put into words, shame, fear, guilt, longing, yet they move through us, shaping every choice. Unspoken Currents was born from those invisible forces that tug beneath the surface of recovery. Addiction taught me how powerful those undercurrents can be, and how hard it is to bring them into the open. This painting became a way of tracing their motion, acknowledging that healing doesn’t come from silence but from learning to let those currents flow freely. It’s about movement, vulnerability, and the strength that comes from admitting what’s been hidden.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
Healing isn’t beautiful, not at first. It’s messy, uneven, and often painful. The Shape of Healing came from a place of realizing that recovery doesn’t follow a straight line. I created this piece while confronting setbacks that made me question whether I was really growing at all. Over time, I began to see that healing has its own form, irregular, imperfect, but alive. This painting is a reflection of that truth: that every scar, every relapse, every step forward and back still forms part of something whole.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
There was a time when my thoughts were so loud I couldn’t hear myself think. The endless noise of craving, anxiety, and regret filled every corner of my mind. Where the Noise Fades captures the first quiet moment I experienced after that, the fragile beginning of inner peace. It’s not about silence being complete, but about discovering space where there once was only chaos. For me, this piece represents hope in its purest form: not in loud triumph, but in the subtle, steady fading of noise until you realize you can finally breathe again.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
This piece is about renewal, the moment you start believing in the future again after living so long in survival mode. Veins of Tomorrow came from my journey through addiction and into recovery, when I finally began to feel something like life returning. The title reflects that sensation: like hope beginning to pulse again, slowly but steadily. Creating this work reminded me that healing isn’t about forgetting what came before; it’s about letting your pain transform into the energy that carries you forward. Tomorrow exists, and that alone is something worth celebrating.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
For most of my life, I chased distractions, anything that kept me from sitting in silence with my own thoughts. Recovery forced me to slow down, and in that stillness, I found something unexpected: peace. Whispers of Stillness is about that discovery. It’s about the fragile quiet that follows chaos, the calm that comes when you stop trying to control everything. While painting it, I realized that stillness isn’t the absence of struggle; it’s the space where healing begins to take shape.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
Layered greens intersect like overlapping leaves or broken glass, suggesting growth that has been interrupted and reassembled. The translucent geometry creates a sense of shelter and tension at once—a canopy that protects, but only partially. This work explores nature as something constructed, filtered through memory and human intervention rather than experienced directly.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
Radiating shards of faded gold and blue spread outward from a dim center, punctuated by small red marks like distant alarms. The composition suggests an event that has already happened—an impact, an announcement, or a collapse—leaving behind residue instead of clarity. It speaks to collective moments that reshape reality but resist simple interpretation.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”
Warm reds, oranges, and pinks dominate the surface, layered until they almost suffocate one another. There is no clear focal point—only pressure, accumulation, and emotional saturation. This work explores intensity without explosion, capturing states of simmering unrest, desire, or exhaustion that never fully release.
Stretched Canvas 16” x 20”