Hug Me

The most honest thing a bear — or a person — can do is stand with arms wide open. In Hug Me, Rocky Asbury paints that vulnerability with both humor and genuine tenderness. A richly textured golden-amber bear, stitched and patched from what appears to be a lifetime of being loved hard, stands squarely on a luminous cyan ground and asks for exactly what it needs. Yellow fabric patches, cross-stitch seams, and wide wondering eyes give the figure a worn, endearing authenticity, while a small red heart stitched to its chest leaves no doubt about what's keeping it together. At 51" × 46", this acrylic original is large enough to fill a room with warmth — and honest enough to mean it.