This painting was inspired by a panic attack Meko experienced in the woods as a storm materialized on the horizon. “I realized I was too far in to turn back,” Meko says. Even though he was materially prepared for a storm, the anxiety caused by the gathering clouds made him lose touch with his intellect. The clouds begin to look like brain stems, which triggered bigger emotions, making him perceive more clouds, and more brain stems rushing in. The feeling created a sense of danger and an awareness that death is certain. At that moment, Meko sat by a tree and took out some M&Ms, and crushed some up to spread on the ground to attract ants. “I had this thought that if I died, the ants could eat my body and someone would find a skeleton with a hat on,” Meko says. “That’s representative of me having that moment when intelligence fails. It’s a heavy one but a funny one at the same time.”