My favorite place at the San Diego Zoo is the Orangutan exhibit. They are full of humor, intelligence, fun, antics, uniqueness. It doesn't get much better. So many moments escape us---fly by without our actually experiencing all there is within them. My passion as an artist is to freeze frame a moment in creation for us to ponder the depth of our encounter. A sleeping orangutan, a fully blossomed flower or a waterfall in motion---revealing the richness of each image helps the viewer to transcend the blur of life and meet up with a soul changing depth of meaning. The exploration process is an ongoing dynamic. New insights are revealed with every subsequent glance at the art piece. More of the fun comes for me with my chosen medium, Scratchboard (a piece of Masonite with a layer of Kaolin Clay and a final layer of Black India ink). The process is subtractive rather than the usual additive techniques like painting, pencil, pastel, etc. I use an Xacto knife to scratch away the India ink layer. I love the challenge of thinking in reverse and seeing what is being revealed.