My impression of a German story created by Sibylle von Olfers in 1906 named "The Story of the Root-Children" In the original story there are many children living together underground and are taken care of by Mother Earth. They sleep waiting until spring so they may come out and play all the days until fall arrives when they must return underground. My rendition is of a solitary older child...I leave it up to the viewer to decide what has happened to the other children- has the pollution of the earth dwindled their numbers? All I know is that as I was creating this piece I got the strong impression she was meant to be alone (the idea came from a sketch I had created two years ago and put away because I didn't quite know what to make of her until recently when I discovered the story of the root children) As I was finishing the final draft a poem came to me as if the image itself were singing it softly in my ear. "I dream, I dream, of summer winds, of trees that sing the sweetest hymns. Awaken my soul, unbind my limbs. Lift me out of my darkest hours, That I may see the first spring flowers."