Nobel Prize winning author Jose Saramago writes that his strongest characters are women who set examples he would like to follow:
"Sometimes, they are no more than examples, sometimes they don't really exist, but of one thing I am certain: with women like these, we would not have had this chaos in the world, because they would always have remembered what it means to be human."

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He says much on why people create: to inspire themselves. In his case, to remind us what it means to be human. And here, we are in agreement. Although I don't use words, I tend to think about the characters I create on canvas as a writer might think of the characters created for a novel. While they all relate to or are based on a real person or persons, in the end, each one of them becomes their own unique being, separate from both their creator and their initial inspirations. They become, one hopes, inspirations in themselves: reminders of the human experience, of humility and humanity. When in extreme situations they display strength, dignity and a certain nobility of spirit, they remind us of how we would like to behave when those situations become our own, as one day, it is

more than likely, they must.

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My own characters, caught in a moment of unease, the causes of which are never revealed, tend towards silence: not a mute silence. Their silence has nothing to do with speech. Rather it is an inner quietude: the kind that endures without complaint, or anger, but with an infinitude of humanity. It is not so much that these characters endure, as their humanity endures. An unwavering, compassion and empathy. It is the one trait, that attracts me to these very different canvases.

In the midst of the obvious discomfort of their situation, there is a peace: a harmony as each character endures, and ultimately emerges from, the chaos of the world with an order that comes from the depths of their being. In this, they remind me not only of what it means to be human, but that one can retain one's humanity in the most demanding of life's moments.