Forest with Dappled Light delves into imaginary realms of the fantastical where forests are alive and dancing, as if in a ballet. Plants are the characters in this story, swaying in a unified and lyrical harmony of the wind. Essenhigh adds a layer of tension and otherworldliness in her forest: the stark contrast between the lavender rose flowers and the strangely out-of-place turquoise blue hints at a more complicated tale. 

Over the last decade, a new generation of painters have looked to previous modern art styles and refashioned them to the contemporary moment. Surrealism and Magical Realism, closely tied artistic movements both developed a century ago, are being reimagined by many artists eager to explore the psychological, unconscious, and fantastical. Essenhigh was one of the first contemporary painters to draw upon Magical Realism and Surrealism within a burgeoning Neo-Surrealist artistic movement.   

-Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art