Have you ever had a weirdly specific vision you wanted to turn into a reality? I have had many of those since I was a small child. Every now and again a fancy would seize me, an inspiration fever. I remember at the age of four shoplifting smurf tissue paper from a shoe box in Norman’s because I knew it would make the perfect wallpaper for my dollhouse. Unfortunately, my mother did not agree with my method of procurement and marched me back into the store. Many such visions have struck me since with varying levels of success.

My latest vision, which has haunted since the fall, is a Gustav Klimt inspired mixed media rendering of the Queen of Hearts. Oddly specific, right? Tonight, I finally put some lines on a large blank canvas. It’s important to note that I have owned this large canvas for several months and have been rendered impotent by its white yawning expanse. Also, I am not an artist, but an English professor. So this was a momentous first stroke. I don’t know where it will lead, but it is now going somewhere.