Children can inspire us in many different ways. As an artist, Ridley has inspired me to create art that addresses my feelings towards him, as well as to motherhood in general. It's not always pretty -- life never is -- but it's as honest as I'm willing to be on paper.

The first image that featured Himself was an etching entitled "Ridley's first vision of his ancestral mothers". The title says it all. If you're not already familiar with my work, then let me offer this one crucial fact: the reality that my work conveys is one that's filtered through layers of mythology, art history, fantasy and the odd alcohol-induced stupor. I do not strive to reflect the real world, but to improve upon it as I see fit.

In "Ridley's first vision..." I'm thinking of all those myths of the Divine Child. Jesus wasn't the first, by the way. It's an ancient story that exists in the legends of many disparate cultures.

Further to this myth of the Divine Child is the second work I created featuring Ridley: "Year of the Monkey (Ridley's birthmark)." Yes, Ridley was born in the Chinese Year of Monkey (as was I). Not that he's Chinese, of course (neither am I), but I'm not politically-correct enough to hesitate borrowing the stories of someone else's culture. I'm not Greek or Roman, either. Heck, I'm not even Catholic (see my web site to understand these references).

Ridley has this interesting birthmark on his lower back/upper hip area, commonly referred to as a "strawberry mark". I imagined that, instead of a shapeless blob, this birthmark actually resembled a monkey. Not just any monkey, but Sun Wu-k'ung the Monkey King. Again, this idea harkens back to the whole Divine Child, "behold, he bears the mark" kinda fantasy-based stuff. Hey, just setting my kid up to have a massive Christ Complex later in life.