I wanted to share this painting because it has so much meaning to me. This was the first painting I created when I graduated from college. I didn't major in painting the way I wanted. Instead Advertising was more "practical" for getting a job and it seemed everyone was on my case about getting out and getting a job. My mother said I could stay with her for one month. At the end of the month,if I hadn't found somenthing, I would have to either move out or get a job at the Taco Bell around the corner from where she lived. I wound up taking a freelance job in the art department at Sakowitz and I found a stranger that would allow me to live in her spare bedroom provided I turn over my first few paychecks, when I received them. Money was real tight and I wasn't living up to people's expectations of what a 22-year-old college graduate should be. I even wrote a poem about this painting called "A fool stands before us" which expressed my feeling of being on stage in front of a very harsh audience. In the painting, I portrayed in a more positive light, she's bowing for an applauding audience. The happy ending to this story was that the sound-check guy at the Wotham Center in Houston bought it. (LOL, It had a special meaning to him as well. He swears that the shadow in the background aisle is him!) (I suppose the other happy ending to that story is that I survived the ordeal of being judged harshly.) I would not normaly submit such an old entry but this painting brings tears to my eyes everytime I see it. They were tears of sorrow at the time I painted it but now they are tears of gratitude. (another side note... I made my roomate bend over to model for this pose!)