Sunflowers

I had an amazing cousin, Mike, who was a great artist and lawyer. He had an imagination and sense of humor like no one I have ever met. He died a couple of years ago from cancer. He is still truly missed. At his funeral all of his aunts went in together and bought sunflowers to adorn the top of his casket. Sunflowers were his favorite. When I saw the huge flowers I thought, “How different. How unusual. How Mike!” Sunflowers made sense for the kind of person Mike was. After returning home from Mississippi (that’s where Mike lived with his wife Nell) I wanted to send Nell something, just something to make her feel at least a little better. I knew she was hurting deeply. So I painted a sunflower. Nell’s house is filled with paintings of Mike’s and they are great, so I just painted her a small 8×10 sunflower. Soon more sunflowers were to be painted. They always bring Mike to my mind.