SOLD --- To some people this was not an acceptable work product. It looked to some like a possible reproduction of another artist's work. It isn't a reproduction. It is a reaction. I saw a colored-etching by German Artist Gerhard Gepp. I used its central imagery of a person holding up a mask as a basis for my piece. I love Gepp's artwork - and I loved this piece as well when I completed it (loving it even more when it became my first sale on e-Bay). I enjoy sometimes painting specifically for children, while somehow trying to maintain a serious sophisticated imagery and story for adult viewers who love and care about art. With my public thanks to Mr. Gepp, a truly brilliant artist in Europe, for my inspiration - I am comfortable with my originality in this piece. Unlike in the Gepp piece, I added a field of flowers, long grass, a blue sky and floating clouds. A person wearing a mask to better fit in with the soft and sweet, the happy surroundings. A typical man wearing a carefully held mask to look comfortable and secure to friends and family, despite any variety of daily problems or pressures going on in his real life.