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Perhaps the biggest struggle in my life was the death of my mother I was estranged from for a period of 14 years.  During my first semester in graduate school, she was diagnosed with colon cancer that eventually spread to her liver and she passed two months later.  The following summer, I was eating breakfast in Michigan and I discovered a gorgeous organic object; a single most beautiful slice of meat that was glistening in the morning sun.  I knew I had to paint this freshly cooked slice of swine meat.  This single three feet long painting kickstarted an obsession of painting to re-experience that joy that I stumbled upon on that one fateful summer morning.  The bacon series was my savior during some of the darkest hours of my life.