(48x60 oil on canvas)This painting is titled “Dandelion” after a line from a Julie Lechevsky poem by the same title. The poem touches on themes of resilience through the metaphor of the dandelion. The poem also explores the idea of transformation and freedom which I feel is often an expressed ethos of skateboarders. The poem speaks of a wish to grow and transform like the dandelion, from “gold to thin white hair,” and be carried away by the wind in order to escape societal expectations and constraints. I gave nods to the poem in the yellow used in the background and small stamped marks of dandelions in the elements of quiet conversation throughout the painting.