36x48 Oil on canvas ©2005 Procession For about six years I had a studio outside of Patagonia. Almost every day that I went to my studio, I walked up the wash (which I accessed where it crossed the road a half a block from our house). It took about 45 minutes door to door (mostly wash time). Soon after my mother died, I began to glimpse a fox on this walk. I had never seen a fox in the twenty one years of walking around in the hills and washes of Patagonia. So I thought that maybe it was my mother’s spirit. At the time of seeing the fox (which happened more than once), I was painting Procession. I had wanted to paint something for my mother. I wanted it to have her favorite time in life so I pictured my brother and myself as children again. We are in the shadow of the welcoming procession of cake carrying relatives who had gone to the Great Beyond before her. My father (bearded) leads. The snake upon which the cake is carried refers to the death of our dog Coco, who died from a rattlesnake bite less than 2 months after my mother. A pet cockatiel (who also died) is pictured, plus numerous family dogs of the past. For days, I was having difficulty with the hind leg of a dog in the painting. I couldn’t get it right. I often use a mirror image to reveal the source of a persistent problem. This time, when I looked in the mirror, instead of the hind leg, I immediately saw the outline of a fox. Somehow the fox had even appeared in the painting! I can only think that it was the presence of my mother.