“Passport to Magonia” owes its title to a book of the same name by Jacques Vallee. In it the author compares similarities between modern ufo experiences and folklore from times of yore about fairies, angels, demons and other fantastic creatures.…It’s fascinating. One of the myths that really caught my imagination in particular was about Fairy Circles, which were circular depressions in the grass that western Europeans would claim fairies had dominion over. People who had the misfortune of stepping into them would often report meeting bizarre creatures, experiencing lost time, or might disappear completely. In this painting I wanted to imagine what one of these circles might look like. For reference I used the garden in a neighbor’s unruly backyard.