​​I adore Matisse and remember seeing a painting of his as a young girl and thinking, yes, I will be an artist, I have to be an artist, I am an artist. His colors, shapes, patterns and playfulness made sense to me and made me happy. They still make me happy and I have his reproductions hanging in my studio.
I looked over one day and saw this cone flower in front of one of his paintings and thought how perfect it seemed. And that's how this painting was born.