I have always been interested in medieval subjects and artifacts, so when I came across this haiku it felt like a natural fit. I never knew Syracuse had any gargoyles so it was fun to go out and look around the city to find them. When I came across the building in my illustration I knew it was perfect. Here was this normal looking building, and just stuck on the side of it was this giant griffin gargoyle, like it was clinging to some distant, Gothic past.

I thought of the gargoyle leaping off, flying away from the city that used to be his home, and about an old man who remembered a time when there used to be hundreds of them. The old man is just standing there, maybe knowing that something is happening, but not really knowing that this last gargoyle, this last piece of his youth, is leaving for good.