i just finished a painting for the promise chair event on the 27th i am so proud of the work and i just wanted to share my description of it if you want to see it i added an image to my photo page any feedback would be truly appreciated -Christopher “En-courage hope” En is Sumerian cuneiform script for “the one that speaks for all life” Courage and Hope is emphatically needed to fight and prevail over any obstacle in life. This painting is about revivification and how, in life, even the terrifying can show us our true depth and resolve. I know a bit about this. When I was a child I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma skin cancer. The repercussions of my diagnoses in many ways have guided my life, showing me not only the opulence of living but also how to appreciate the time we have been given. I recognized that cancer is an opportunity to proclaim life and not to fear my mortality. How often are any of us given such a chance? When I was asked to create a painting for the Promise Chair event it was not only an honor, it was, as I told my mother, “a chance for me to give back to all those who are surviving, fighting, and, like my self, recognizing that cancer is an opportunity to proclaim there lives”. The main focus of the work is a tree; a tree that has been stripped of its leaves from a hard winter, but is still alive and reaching for life and light ready to re-grow, to regain strength and flourish. I wish to impart the feeling of rebirth and personal identity to the viewer of this painting to remind that they are more than there illness, cancer maybe within there physical body but it should never diminishes or infect there spirit.