The fire and brilliance in the petals of the tigerlilly is the key reason that it is my favorite flower. As I was creating this piece, I noticed it took on a sort of botanical, organic nature. There was no representational intention behind this piece, more of a color study to see how one color interacts with another amidst a warm color palette...but it became more than that as I worked layer upon layer. Living on the beach, there were literally no tiger lillies to be found - as this piece took on the essence of the flower I had been surrounded by all my life until moving to the Atlantic coast, it brought back fond memories as the tiger lilly symbolizes all that was good an innocent in my childhood. So, this piece ended up paying homage to those memories. Created using a palette knife and undiluted oil paints squeezed straight onto the canvas, this piece was one of the earliest to utilize a technique and signature style of sorts that I have worked to perfect and evolve ever since.