As a working mother with numerous side and volunteer activities and never enough sleep, I found great joy in escaping occasionally to my mother's house on the far east side of Tucson, Arizona, nestled quietly in the foothills.

This painting is inspired by my pre-dawn prayers and meditations on my mothers back porch with her stunning view of lush rolling desert reaching up to the Rincon mountains. As the sky slowly lightened each morning the birds would begin their glorious clamor with an occasional coyote howling in the distance.

As I sat in quiet peacefulness, the sky would begin to glow, first a pinkish red, then golden yellow and culminating in bright whiteness. Each stage would be accompanied by rays of light shooting across the surrounding mountains. It wasn't until the brightness became unbearable, would I venture inside, closing the blinds as the burning heat began to invade the peacefulness of the sunrise.

I have re-painted this scene four times, each time trying to balance the ecstasy I would feel as the colors and brightness shot across the desert scene with the quiet, intensely peacefulness of the moment. In order to bring the dark but close mesquite tree into the foreground, I built up a number of 3-D branches with scattered seed pods attached out of wire and epoxy putty standing out from the wood substrate of the painting.

"Dawn Prayers", original 28" x 42" oil on board with wire and epoxy putty.