I created this painting while listening to the seminal collection of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. The collage that I used as a springboard for the painting consists of an image from a 1965 Better Homes and Gardens magazine, a Black model, and a falcon resting on a falconer's hand. While working, I learned that the title of Didion’s book is derived from the famous poem by William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming, which coincidentally conjures imagery of the falcon and the falconer. The basic theme of the poem is the death of the old world, to be followed by the rebirth of a new one, drawing upon Biblical symbolism of the apocalypse and the second coming of Christ. I see this painting as a symbol of reparation and power.