I tried very hard to NOT let my current situation be reflected in my work. Instead I crank up the “happy” music and tried to ignore the excruciating pain that was shooting down my back and legs, escaping into another world. Quite frankly, I’ve always felt THAT was what art was supposed to do. To let your imagination run, and take you to “better places”. My spine surgery didn’t go very well, and instead of alleviating pain I was already experiencing, it instead created a situation where I could not walk more than a step or two without collapsing to the floor in pain. The most comfortable seat in the house, was and still is in the chair in my studio that was approved and ordered by the doctor who performed my first spine surgeries in 2011. Following a second surgery a week later,I am spending more studio time now than ever in the past due to my immobility… Thankfully, “White Lightening” is a piece I started several weeks before surgery. In fact, I’ve incorporated these flowers in a seperate new piece, simply because I enjoy their simplicity. I have four or five other pieces like this that simply need touching up before I “finalize” them, but “White Lightning” seemed to be the most cheerful, the most distant from the world I’m currently experiencing. In the past, several have commented that they preferred the black background I’ve incorporated in my floral work, but my need for something active, light hearted and cheerful is too overwhelming to ignore. The experimentation with layers and various backgrounds allows me hours of escape until the medical folks can figure out what went wrong. Its my hope that you enjoy the piece as much as I do. I feel that when it finally came together, it is a piece that would cheer up any room in the house.