I'm interested in more complex compositions that show relationship between people and environment. I want the viewer to take a second look and feel something about how the girl looks at boys. She is shy, as the top one is the dark side of the other one.

Two reactions to the same light, the girls are different. I love the attention, but she doesn't. I think it's my fear of success that drove the painting.

I gravitate toward the Eastern philosophy of meditation and mindfulness even though I went to Catholic school. Here, I feel in-between the two religions, but even Hindu feels good sometimes. I started this painting with the idea of triumph in the face of death at a time I had a cancer scare.

I struggled with this painting, and what came after as I realized I was thinking about my character arch between the early school girl drawings, ant this painting. In my early years I suffered sexual abuse, which is where the school girls come from, and then started making art when I reached adulthood. So, I went from that hurt and pain to think well of myself, now. The past didn't let me feel that way.