In London, spring 2011, I was happy to discover that a long-time health food haunt from university days still exists: Food for Thought. A vase in the window, filled with Narcissi filled upstairs and down with a sweet and wonderful perfume. Individual blooms were small and delicate. Combined, they were potent and memorable. In this painting, I chose to make them larger than life (40 in x 40 in). The painting created was, originally, triggered by a juried show title: Ego. Narcissus for Ego, I thought. Clever! Maybe the judges didn’t get it. Maybe it wasn’t good enough. Whatever the reason, it didn’t get into the show, and ended up being my penultimate painting before deciding to take hiatus.

p.s. I did have another work chosen for the Ego show, Blue Torment, not painted with the Ego show in mind, but appropriate to the title: a portrait lacking in ego, ego-less.