The Flower of the Universe was done when I lived in Winston-Salem and studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA). NCSA was a gathering of talented young people dedicated to their art form whether it was drama or art or music. Even though I was older, 27, I fit right in and it was glorious studying classical guitar and hanging with the youngsters. Several of the poeple I hung out with became accomplished actors and actresses and I see them on the big screen and TV now and then.
There were some extremely talented guitarists enrolled at NCSA like my friend Ricardo Cobo. Ricardo would wake up every afternoon around 2 pm and play guitar all night, making pots of coffee to keep him awake. He loaned me his camera and that's what I used to take shots of Balleria. The ballerina was a dance major at NCSA. She agreed to pose for me and she gave me a photo I admired of her by a lily pond in South America. I lost the photo years ago but fortunately made a painting. I changed the setting around some but the result was mystical.
The flower of the universe is a yellow water lily. It appears to be imbued with some magical power that is radiating into her raised hand. I left the concrete plain, unpainted canvas.