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It’s a small world and I think everybody alive today in this country has been effected by the tragic events of 10 years ago. Almost everybody knows someone who lost a loved one or who survived by what seems like sheer luck. I know two people who directly lost either friends or family on September 11, ten years ago. This in mind, I thought that today I should be productive despite the somber mood of our country. The above piece is a reverse painted table lamp that I completed today.

Though nobody alive in my family today directly remembers the attacks on Peal Harbor—our nation’s other significant foreign attack— my family carries this unfortunate event in our history. My grandmother and her family waited two weeks to find out if her older brother was alive—and he was, though he returned a very different person. His ship, the USS West Virginia, sank in the battle and he lost friends in the most horrible of ways. For my great-uncle, from what I understand his life was never easy after that fateful day. I think that the family probably felt extreme relief to find him alive. I’m sure that helped make our memory of Pearl Harbor a bit better, considering the circumstances.

Painting is my greatest gift and what I feel is my purpose in this life. It’s my contribution to society—however small—and it’s important to me to continue to use my talent to produce beauty. When I was painting this reverse painted table lamp I thought of all of the highly productive people who’s lives were cut short—some in an instant and some in what must have been an agonizingly long time—and all of the people who grieved hardest from their loss. Life is what it is…the good and the bad. I worked today in honor and contemplation of those who would not have the choice…ten years later.