"I love the Italian word for 'sunflower': girasole, from gira (turn) and sole (sun). Last summer I went to Italy in the heart of August so I could see the fields around my little home blooming in a sea of gold. It had been a bad year for the girasoli and my friend Mauro and I drove around trying to find a good field. Mauro even had to hold up one sunflower's drooping head so I could take a good picture—I guess even sunflowers have bad days! I hope to paint many more of their smiling faces in the future."