The porch is actually my next-door neighbor's porch. From my porch, I would see my neighbors tending to the plants. So when I got this assignment, I looked around at quite a few places to find a garden to illustrate, but I just felt that this one was beautiful.

A lot of times, when I'm working on an assignment, I'll try to paint images of Syracuse and integrate them into my work. The city has some beautiful qualities—beautiful architecture, beautiful nature. Often it ends up that I paint views or scenery that I see everyday, like my back yard, or a view of the street. Whatever I see a lot, I tend to find a way to integrate it. I like to find the beautiful aspects of something that everybody else sees as normal.