"In the last three weeks of summer before I started school, I was very sick with scarlet fever. And I was sick with pneumonia, tonsillitis, and an ear infection all at the same time. I had a 104.9 - degree fever.

A friend of ours, came and did a fomentation on my back. She used a cold ice rag, with another rag on top. Then she'd pound on my back very hard, and I had to cough and cough to get the bacteria out.

Then she would put a boiling rag
on my back and
do the same thing over.

She told me the only way I was going to get happier and better inside was by watching comedy - Lucy, Benny Hill - no Lassie or dying puppy stories, no Free Willy.

In this painting I'm telling people that through bad times,
they should always try to keep a smile on their face."