This series of paintings was created during my first return to the United States after having lived in Portugal for several months. I returned to finish some business and my wife-to-be suggested I used the downtime to paint and continue to explore my fascination with X’s – and attempt to block endured traumas. I later discovered the layering in my abstract work symbolized the pressures I had endured. And the calligraphic lines or scribbles represented my feeling of entrapment and a genetic memory of my ancestor Antoine LeForestier dit Fortier.