This summer I read some of the greatest American novels in an attempt to remember America’s achievements, successes, and instill a sense of pride for our land and its people during these uncertain, doubtful, and trying times. This painting was about re-imagining and personifying a line of text from a historically classic American novel from 1898 “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James. In the novel the main character proclaims during the night “It was a gaiety in the gloom!” This painting “The Gaiety and The Gloom” was about reinventing that statement visually and representing those literal emotions. Gaiety is seen in a radiantly golden state carrying Gloom from the depths of drowning sadness. This painting also serves to remind the viewer that there are spurts of gaiety to ride on in our seemingly sunken gloom.