I started this piece in the painting class I took in the fall of 2001. I found a few photos from some old random National Geographic magazines...a somber African man clutching an ostrich egg in his hand and in another article was a picture of a beautiful Muslim woman with striking gray eyes and a lovely purple scarf on her head. I thought, Hmmm..they'd look nice together. I obviously stole the sky from my favorite painting, "Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh, and I placed a lighthouse in the background, which I always enjoy painting. There's just something peaceful about lighthouses.
The odd thing about this painting that will constantly stick with me was the timing of it. I'll never forget that one beautiful Tuesday morning, when I was getting ready to go to class to work on "Vincent's Egg". A lovely Indian summer day. Before leaving for class, I learned about the turmoil that was happening in New York on that 11th day in September. When I finally got to the classroom that morning, everyone was silent. We listened to the insanity coming from the radio. We were in utter shock. I can remember after some point looking at my work in progress, at the Muslim woman on my canvas staring back at me. After hearing about they believed radical Muslims were the prime suspects for this tragedy, I thought to myself, Well...I picked a great time to paint someone in Muslim attire.. I shook my head over the irony of it. That was such an unbelievably tragic time in our nation's history. Before I finished this piece, I decided to paint a single tear streaming down the woman's cheek. Despite the memory of the tragedy that was happening in our world while I painted this, it has become my favorite painting in my collection.
