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Originally, and to this day, I want to wrap a building with a frieze. I'd applied to several artist residencies and for grants, but had no takers. I was delighted last July when Artisphere jurors, Jefferson Pinder, Jayme McClellan and Al Miner, accepted my proposal for an internal frieze, site-specific for the Mezz Gallery.

I thought that I knew what the Frieze was supposed to look like. Anger inspired it and I knew I wanted color in it. So I'd planned to print screen images in color, a la Rauschenberg's 34 Illustrations for Dante's Inferno.

Numerous dead ends in terms of the underlying narrative, meant 3-4 months of treading water. I collected images blindly, not knowing yet how to use them. At least I knew I'd be working on steel to get better acquainted with its properties, specifically how to take advantage of its porosity, which I thought meant "softness."

I met with Gretchen Schermerhorn and Marty Itner of Pyramid Atlantic(an excellent, too-little known print studio) to tap into their expertise in solvent transfer and screen printing. Discussing my project with Gretchen convinced me to use solvent transfer as the best way to evoke the dry desert and dream-like qualities I was striving for.

Simultaneously I was reading two of my husband Dave's gifts: "Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum" and Fagan's translation of "The Iliad", in addition to "The Odyssey", "The Writer's Journey" and my perennial favorite, Gaiman's "The Sandman" series.

An underlying troublesome voice insistently reminded me not to be too literal and give it all away, story-wise. So many factors to bring under control.