Anders and I had been talking about creating an image about his mother for quite some time. When we finally got to do it, his partner Robin came with us — and a good thing too! She was instrumental in creating the final image.

We arrived at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park without much of an idea as to how we would write the text on the door. If you’ve been following the project you may know I like to plan out in advance what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it. But I trusted that we could come up with an interesting way to write his text.

Robin suggested picking up fallen leaves and spelling out the words. One of the things I love about the project is finding myself in these situations I never would have created on my own. And, sure enough, there we were, on a Sunday afternoon, taking leaves and sticking them to a door as tourists wandered around taking pictures of our endeavor! In an amusing moment, a woman walked by with her boyfriend and said to him, “How come you never do that for me?”

After we had created the image I asked Anders about his love for his mother. He said he wanted to express gratitude for the passageway through which he entered this amazing, beautiful existence. He said he liked to think of his life as an expression of a miracle – the miracle of the universe evolving awareness of itself. I had never really looked at it quite like that and it gave me a renewed sense of wonder and excitement about this journey we all share. So thanks to Anders and Robin, and thanks to all of our mothers. Without them we simply wouldn’t be here, loving, laughing, and creating.

Click here to see a portrait of Anders.