Romero’s paintings seems to have been born of an unwarranted desire to editorialize a re-introduction to a place of home. This is an objectively normal act for a creative faced with rationalizing a dissimilar, complex and lush environment and perhaps more so, his role within it. It was the methodology and the marks made that struck me most. Romero’s background in design—a profession steeped in multi-tiered consideration—is of categorical hard lines, spatial allocation, and precise messaging dispatched to a highly considered audience. In these paintings, however, every one of those rote principles is rejected, as if they never got tossed into his suitcase. Instead, we see an automatism in the summons of an unpractised hand auspiciously conveying lucid responsiveness to moments he allowed a deeper nature to course through him. As his friend, collaborator, and peer, I can’t say that I saw it coming; but I am grateful for its arrival. —Graeme Berglund